Looking Through the Mirror
by AMW89
Summary: After waking up on the battlefield with the Kishin dead and Maka injured by his own hands, Crona resolves himself to be rid of the black blood and it's influence. Five years later a new, strangely familiar enemy appears... Chapter 7 is now uploaded.
1. Prologue  Part 1: Blackout

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Prologue - Part 1: Blackout

Darkness.

He couldn't see anything. Everything sounded muffled.

Quiet.

Suddenly he could hear the sound of a frightening, yet fearful scream as clear as day, and as quickly as it had came, it vanished.

The sound was immediately replaced with a warm and tingling sensation on his fingers and palms along with the smell of copper, followed by an intense feeling of giddiness and power.

Tugging.

Someone was tugging on his arms. He thought he could hear words spoken with urgency and worry, but he wasn't able to make out their meaning.

The Giddiness remained, but now he felt a hunger, a hunger for more.

More of what? Something wasn't right.

The urgent words grew in volume, now he could understand some of what was said. The voice was pleasant, he liked this voice.

"_Wake up!"_

Wake up? He was awake, wasn't he?

"_That's enough damnit! He's gone now, you can stop!"_

The tugging grew more persistent and somewhat irritating.

Stop what? He wasn't doing anything. At least he didn't think so...

"_He's not listening, we've got to restrain him before he hurts someone!"_

Another voice? He didn't like this voice as much as the had to go.

"_What's he doing? Maka, If you were ever going to work your magic, now would be a good time!"_

That second voice again. What happened to the first one?

He could feel a sudden rush of excitement as he felt something pierce something else, followed shortly by the warm and tingly feeling on his hands again. The smell of copper thick in the air. He could feel something fall onto his thin frame, grasping at his collar.

"_Heh. If I knew you were going to stab me.. I wouldn't have gotten in the way"_

The something he could now identify as the first voice went limp and fell to the ground.

Worry.

He felt worried. Something was wrong. This voice, he knew it, he knew **her**. He grew cold.

Fear.

He could feel fear, he felt fear for the safety of this person.

His vision cleared and he was greeted with a scene of destruction, rubble was everywhere. In front of him lay a blond girl wearing a long black coat, a large wound on her stomach bleeding at a dizzying speed.

Two and two was put together and as if a fog was lifted, he was now very aware of where he was and what had happened. Sound came crashing down on him and screaming could be heard, but he refused to listen. Time seemed to slow down and he could only focus on her.

He felt sick.

He'd hurt her, he'd hurt his best friend, **badly** and it almost looked like she wouldn't pull through.

His sight went dark again, but this time, as his vision faded, he could feel the urge to fall asleep tugging at his very being.

Before everything went silent though, he could hear one more voice. This voice was different; it was sinister and it felt as if it were coming from his own mind.

"_Congratulations Crona. I never knew you had the guts to pull something like that off. This is just the first of many."_

No. He couldn't let it get its own way again.

And for the time being Crona knew no more.

* * *

><p>Authors Note: I'm still working out the kinks as far as this website is concerned, so I apologise if some formatting is not as it should be. For the time being thoughts and dialogue will be in italics and I'll make sure I'm clear which is which - this is subject to change though...<p>

Hope you enjoyed my very first chapter of my very first fanfic attempt ever!


	2. Prologue Part 2: Aftermath

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Prologue - Part 2: Aftermath

"_Wh-Where am I?" Crona looked around himself, everything was a hospital white and the smell of disinfectant was rampant. "The infirmary? I don't remember getting hurt..."_

_Without any kind of warning the atmosphere in the room seemed to physically change. It felt heavy and he wasn't sure he could stay standing for much longer._

_He was standing? But that meant that he wasn't in bed, which also meant that he wasn't hurt. Relief washed over Crona and for a moment he forgot about the invisible weight in the air. The weight had other plans though, and as if impatient the feeling intensified, demanding his attention._

_A shape appeared in his peripheral vision, a shape that had not been there upon his first inspection of the room._

_He turned to look at it directly and found it to be a hospital curtain, presumably screening his view of someone else unlucky enough to find themselves in the bleak room. Dark shapes could be seen through the curtain and with them he could hear hushed voices, punctuated occasionally by something he could only identify as crying._

_He edged his way towards the curtain slowly, growing more and more uneasy which each passing step. Whatever it was that he was about to see there, he guessed it was something he wasn't going to like._

_As he reached the partition Crona's nerves were suddenly replaced by a sense of determination that he was surprised by and he immediately used it to pull the curtain aside and look upon the source of the commotion._

_Surrounding a bed was a group of people he couldn't quite make out, their forms were blurred and their faces hidden, but despite the irregularity of this he could not bring himself to care, for some reason all he cared about was seeing who lay in that bed. Once again, he spurred himself on and moved to the front of the group. _

_He knew it. He knew he wouldn't like what he found._

_Laying before him was Maka. Her skin was deathly pale and the unmistakable red of blood could be seen through a large bandage on her stomach. She wasn't moving, she wasn't breathing, she wasn't __**alive**__._

_Crona started to shake uncontrollably. "She can't be dead! Maka's too strong to die!"_

_The voices of the figures around him started to endlessly grow in volume until it had gotten so loud that he had to cover his ears. _

_He shook his head violently. "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!"_

_Images flew through his mind so fast that he could barely comprehend what he was seeing, but one in particular caught his attention. This image had shown Maka on the floor of a decimated battleground, unconscious but with a gloved hand on her stomach wound. The offending weapon was in Crona's hand, Maka's blood running down its length._

_Dread added itself to the already horrific cocktail of emotions Crona was feeling._

_He fell to his knees and the presence of the other people in the room disappeared, only to be replaced by one entity he dared not look at._

"_I can't say she didn't deserve it" the voice drawled "She was always getting in the way, trying her best to be a damn goody-two-shoes. I say good riddance"_

_Hate rose up and destroyed despair._

_All Crona wanted to do now was drain the life out of this person, he didn't care who it was, he didn't/couldn't care about anything any more. _

_He turned quickly to confront his tormentor, only to be greeted with an empty room once again and then turned back to where Maka lay, once again finding nothing._

_He couldn't deal with this._

_As he screamed, the room to folded in on itself..._

* * *

><p>Crona shot up into a sitting position and promptly smacked his head on a low hanging shelf. Evidently he was still not used to his new living accommodation.<p>

Despite this though, he could not feel the pain through the overwhelming flood of fear and dread that was still working its way through his system. He knew now that it was all a sick, twisted nightmare, but he still didn't know how to shake the niggling worry in the back of his mind.

It had been a week since the Kishin was killed, surprisingly by his own hand, but at the same time he had grievously injured Maka. Had it not been for a swift intervention from Professor Stein, she would almost certainly have died.

Every day since the incident, Crona's thoughts were plagued with feelings of guilt. He felt that he had betrayed his friends, the academy and most importantly Maka herself. No one blamed him though, they knew he was under the influence of a short term berserker state brought on by the black blood when Maka was attacked by the Kishin. But Crona thought it ironic that he had hurt the very person he had strived to protect in the first place.

He couldn't deal with it.

He couldn't deal with the fact he'd done such a thing. Never in a million years had he thought it even possible that he would be able to harm a single hair on the girl's head, never-mind actually driving a sword through her gut. He also couldn't deal with what he perceived to be everyone's misplaced trust in him.

What were they thinking? Why did they keep him around? Maybe they were just keeping him around for the time being whilst they devised his punishment? That had to be it. He thought he deserved it.

Tears formed in his eyes and his skinny body shook violently in conjunction with every silent sob. He didn't want to make a noise, he didn't think he deserved anyone's attention after what he did, never-mind their pity. It didn't matter that he wasn't anywhere near anyone at the moment, he often suspected that he was being watched, who wouldn't keep a subtle eye on him? He was a monster after all, his black blood was testimony to that.

After crying himself dry, Crona slowly wiped his eyes on his sleeves and turned to sit on the edge of his bed. After taking a few moments to psych himself up, he cautiously stood and took in every corner of his room, making sure he was alone.

He sighed in relief and looked over his shoulder expectantly and spoke, "Good morning Ragnarok".

There was no reply. It had been like this the entire week. Crona had often wondered if it had something to do with the intense berserker state he had been in, it had been the the deepest one he had been in so far. Whereas usually he still had some semblance of control during these moments, this last one had been different as he had no control over what he did at all. Nevertheless, he still blamed himself for what had happened, after all it was his job to control the black blood and the insanity it often brought.

Crona clutched his one arm and ambled slowly towards his wardrobe and opened it. The inside of it was filled side-to-side with his clothes, all black with large white cuffs. He knew that he wasn't really gifted with a great imagination when it came to his choice of attire, but he was comfortable with it and that was all that mattered to him. The difference now though, was in inclusion of several pairs of dark jeans.

* * *

><p><em>Shortly before the battle with the Kishin, Maka had encouraged him to at least go out and look at some other clothes and see if anything caught his eye. At first he was adamant that it was a bad idea, but relented immediately after Maka had promised to go with him.<em>

_After a good two hours browsing Death City's clothing establishments and having no luck, Maka beckoned to him from the other side of a clothing rack._

"_Crona! Come check these out, I think you'll like them"_

_After checking that his route was clear of any unknowns, Crona quietly drifted towards her and looked at the clothing item in her hands._

_What he saw was a simple pair of dark (but not black) jeans. He had no idea why, but their simplicity drew him in and he purchased enough pairs of them to line his wardrobe._

_He wasn't one for bold fashion statements anyway._

_Despite the purchase of the new leg wear, Crona was still happy with the torso section of his robe and so, by the suggestion of Soul, he cut them away from the lower sections of his robes, turning them into simple long-sleeved shirts._

_Afterwards, whilst observing his handiwork in Maka & Soul's living room, Kid insisted that he tidy them up a bit before Crona wore them. After all, they had to be perfectly symmetrical right?_

* * *

><p>After having dressed and eaten breakfast at a pace that surprised himself, Crona took a deep breath and opened his front door that lead straight out onto a modest looking street near the centre of Death city, and by extension, near the academy too.<p>

He knew he had to move out the dungeon room he had at the school, it reminded him too much of the living conditions he had when he was still with Medusa. He couldn't, however, live too far away from the school, because he just couldn't bring himself to walk through large crowds of the commuting students every morning. He may be slightly more self assured now, but he still wasn't ready for prolonged exposure to people he didn't know.

Crona stepped straight out into a deep puddle and then scowled at it, as if it had been conspiring to ruin his morning. He shook his foot until most of the water was expelled from his shoe and proceeded to walk slowly towards the academy.

He was going to visit Maka again today.

She had been in the infirmary the entire week, unsurprisingly of course, the wound had been serious. Even with Stein's help, she still had a ways to go before she would be back in tip-top shape.

Crona had spent every day by her side, from early morning til late at night. Had he not been shooed away by Marie every night, he'd have happily stayed by Maka's side twenty-four/seven.

Every day was the the same: Crona would wander in every morning and sit by her, staring at her face as if willing her eyes to open and her mouth to smile at him again. Much to Crona's dismay though, Maka had not woken up at all during that time and whilst Stein agreed that it was unusual, he was certain that she'd be awake and well soon.

Staring at her face again now, Crona hoped he was right. It was day seven now and despite assurances, he could not help but worry. Maka was his tether to the world and he was unashamed to admit that he wouldn't be able to cope for much longer if she didn't wake up soon. The thought disturbed him greatly and he pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them tightly, as if shielding himself from the world.

* * *

><p>As if she detecting his moment of weakness, Maka blearily opened her eyes. She could see a balled up black shape next her that she would have dismissed as some sort of odd furnishing had it not been for the mass of shocking pink that appeared to be attached to it.<p>

Blinking her eyes again in rapid succession, the figure was revealed to her to be Crona. Not that she knew anyone else with pink hair that would come and visit her anyway.

Maka remembered the last moments that she was conscious. She remembered that in a blind fit of insanity she was sure was triggered by an injury she sustained courtesy of the Kishin, Crona single-handedly overwhelmed the monster and destroyed it in a gory display of uncontrollable power.

It didn't stop there though, unlike previous incidents where he was able to get a reign on his madness, he continued to mutilate Asura's body until it was unrecognisable. Maka tried her best to calm him down, but it was out of her hands. Crona then lunged for Kid in a feral display of speed and Maka stood in his path, hoping that her being in danger would shake him from his berserker state.

_Boy, was I ever wrong_ she thought.

Still though, she was alive, and if Crona was here by her side then that obviously meant that everything worked itself out anyway.

Maka smiled and called out to him.

* * *

><p>"Hey you."<p>

Crona lifted his head from its resting position on his knees and looked towards the source of the voice. Much to his delight, he could see Maka looking up at him with a soft smile on her face.

"H-hey t-to you too"

Words could not describe the happiness that had washed over Crona in that instant. Suddenly it felt like all was right in the world.

Maka spoke again.

"How long was I out? Because I feel like I've had enough sleep to last me a lifetime". She squeezed her chin whilst looking thoughtful, following it up with a soft chuckle.

Crona's got a pained look on his face. She had chuckled. How could she laugh so freely in front of him when he was the one that hurt her?

"A week" he replied.

Crona turned away slightly, shame painted all over his face.

Maka noticed this and mentally slapped herself. She knew he'd blame himself for her injuries, he's blamed himself for a lot less. For the time being she was going to have to be extra careful with how she dealt with this touchy topic.

She reached over for his hand and squeezed it gently this resulted in him turning back towards her, she then showered him with the warmest smile she could muster.

It was all Crona could do not to smile back.

"Crona, you must realise that I don't blame you for this, what happened was out of your control. If anything I blame myself for being clumsy enough to get myself hurt in the first place". She scratched the back of her head with her free hand and laughed again, nervously this time. "If I hadn't gotten hurt, you wouldn't have lost control. In any case though, you completely decimated the Kishin whereas myself, Kid and even Blackstar couldn't scratch the bastard. Don't worry about anything, you probably even saved us all, me getting a small stomach wound doesn't measure up against all that, okay?"

Maka threw her best smile out there again, hoping that she had put his fears to rest.

Crona felt much better now that he knew Maka didn't blame him, but still...

"But Maka, I..."

Without warning, Maka pulled him into a tight embrace. This made her stomach wound twinge a little bit and the position was not the most conventional as far as hugs were concerned, but it was nice all the same.

"Seriously Crona." She whispered into his ear. "Don't blame yourself. The Kishin is gone and everyone is safe and sound now, all thanks to you. We should be celebrating!"

Crona absorbed her words and instantly he could feel all his worry and guilt evaporate, as if it were never there to begin with.

He slowly returned her hug, revelling in the moment. All was well again.

In the middle of the embrace, time suddenly seemed to freeze. Crona couldn't move or speak and it appeared as if it were the same for Maka. He could feel a cold presence growing within his mind as a voice spoke, the same voice he had heard drawling to him in his dream last night.

"_Ah, set yourself up nicely I see. Just think Crona, from this position you could literally squeeze the life out of her, maybe even crush her ribcage in the process. All you would have to do is use the strength the black blood gives you. Go on, do it. You know you want to"._

Crona could feel his grip on Maka tighten.

Using all of his willpower, he managed to break free of this voice's control and jumped backwards, falling off the bed and landing painfully on his back in the process.

Crona clutched his head as if it were in pain and shook it violently. "GET OUT! I'm not going to let you hurt Maka again!"

He turned and bolted out the infirmary without so much as a word to the aforementioned girl.

Mak was extremely worried, she couldn't remember anything like this happening to Crona before. She whipped the blanket off herself and swung her legs out of the bed and attempted to stand so that she might chase him, figure this out and calm him down.

Her legs had other plans though and as soon as she stood she collapsed under her own weight. Evidently a week in bed had put them to sleep.

Maka slammed a fist onto the floor in frustration. She could only hope now that Crona could somehow calm himself down and come back to her safely.

* * *

><p>A few corridors away, Crona was still running at breakneck speed. He had to get rid of the black blood. Something inside it was trying to influence his decisions, it was trying to make him hurt Maka and he absolutely couldn't abide by that.<p>

He knew now that it was this entity, this voice that made him hurt Maka the first time around and he had to do something about it before it successfully made him hurt her again. If he didn't, he was certain that it was only a matter of time until she was killed.

Now sprinting down the steps of the DWMA, Crona knew what he had to do.

After the defeat of Medusa, all of her research materials concerning the black blood were seized and taken back to the academy by Stein. With his blessing, Crona borrowed them and started looking for ways to purge the black blood from his body, should he eventually lose enough control of it and it's maddening influence. Understandably, Ragnarok was vehemently opposed to the idea and beat on Crona for a record amount of time until he got tired and retreated back inside Crona's body. Crona was not deterred though, he had to be prepared for every eventuality because as much as he hated to admit it, without Medusa around around any more to help him maintain control, it was never certain how things would turn out. He was pretty sure now though.

Crona arrived at his apartment and hastily unlocked his door before running inside.

What he was about to do would undoubtedly be messy and ridiculously dangerous. He wasn't sure that he'd survive, but what choice did he have if he wanted to make sure that Maka was safe?

The procedure involved him cutting his palms and then using his soul wavelength to forcefully push the black blood out of his system. It was a complicated thing to do and was probably going top the list of pain that Crona had ever felt, but he had no choice.

He worried about what would happen to Ragnarok, but the demon sword's absence during the last week made Crona suspicious that he was never going to return any way, at least not in the same capacity.

Crona cut his palms using a kitchen knife and prepared himself for what he was about to do.

He just hoped that he somehow had enough of his own blood somewhere in his body to keep him alive long enough for someone to find him, although he knew this was probably wishful thinking.

He sparked up his soul wavelength and gave himself a few moments to take a deep breath.

"Goodbye Ragnarok. I'm sorry about this"

With those words, Crona made a determined push with his power until he was certain that all the black blood was out of his system.

As his vision faded, Crona thought that in hindsight, he probably should have done this under the supervision of a doctor or Professor Stein.

"T-too late for that now though" he whispered. "I guess I'll f-find out if I survive if I wake up".

And so darkness arrived again.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Phew, for my second chapter ever of Fanfiction, the extra length was a big jump for me. I feel wiped out - Time for sleep!<p>

Review please! Remember, constructive criticism is the only kind of criticism I'll accept.

G'night!


	3. Chapter 0: Rebirth

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Chapter 0: Rebirth

_Somewhere deep under Death City a dark, formless entity slithered its way sedately through a complicated system of pipes and underground tunnels. _

_The entity couldn't see, it could only feel. For a time, it didn't know where it was going or what it should be doing. All it knew was an unending nothingness as it navigated this labyrinth day after day, month after month, year after year..._

_It loathed how pathetic it had become. It's fall from power was rather unceremonious and very unexpected. It couldn't have predicted that it would end up being stuck like this; a small, sorry excuse of a living being._

_On the other hand though, it did count its blessings, as few as they may have been. _

_When it was banished it was forced back into its most basic form. It shouldn't have survived, it should have dissolved away into nothingness. But with a little bit of luck and some quick thinking, it took a portion of its host's soul before it was pushed out of it's home. A small piece, just enough to keep it going,__ after all it didn't want to draw attention to itself. Its now ex-host wanted it gone, wanted it __**dead**__, so it thought it would play along. For the time being at least._

_It spent the following years moving around underground, unnoticed by the many inhabitants of the city's surface. It had been rebuilding itself bit by bit, gaining strength by absorbing the any small creatures that it came across, starting small with insects and the like and eventually moving on to the biggest creatures it could find such as the sewer rats that were legion down there in the filth._

_It was strong enough now though. Strong enough to take shape and walk again, but it wasn't going to be a pleasant or comfortable experience and the entity knew that._

_Having spent the better part of two decades as a parasite inside a human body, it knew how they worked and their ins and outs. With knowledge at hand and the strength it had managed to regain, it started constructing it's new vessel, but attempted to avoid the frailties a normal body would bring with it._

_First it formed the skeletal structure, then the muscle tissue. Nerve endings came next, until..._

_**Pain.**_

_It could now feel pain, it felt as if it were being burned by alive. The resulting scream was enough to scare away any living creature for miles. Through its pain though, it noticed that it could not hear itself and as the pain subsided as a result of the skin layer's completion, it realised that sound would be one of the last things to come back._

_The entity, now a humanoid, pushed itself up into a sitting position and reached for its eyes, frowning at its own negligence. They had yet to grow into place._

_It felt its ears pop and with that came the sound of rushing water. Smell followed suit. The stench that hung in the air was enough to make the entity hold its newly formed nose and cringe with disgust. _

_Shortly afterwards an itch developed in it's throat and was quickly cured with a hard cough. Vocal chords were in place now. Only one thing left now._

_Patiently the entity waited as its eye sockets were filled with fresh tissue that begun to take shape. When it was done it closed its new eyes and rubbed them slowly and took a deep breath._

_The anticipation was too great, when it was satisfied that its new eyes felt comfortable, it opened them quickly and surveyed its immediate area. It was done, it/he was now physically complete and although he still felt weak he knew how to remedy the problem. _

_It wouldn't be long before he was back to full strength, he just needed a few 'sacrifices', willing or not. It had taken five years to get to this point, another few days was nothing._

_As he stood, the entity grinned darkly and spoke aloud:_

"_Crona old buddy, I'm so gonna kill you"._

Somewhere above ground, on the other side of Death City, a slumbering Crona awoke with a violent shiver.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Sorry about the continued delay of the actual start of the story, I just had a bit of a block with regards to how I wanted to get it rolling. This was originally going to be the start of Chapter 1, but I since thought that it worked better as a stand-alone 'Chapter 0' of sorts, hence it's short length. Sorry!<p>

Chapter 1 is being written now though, honest!

Thanks for your patience and keep those reviews coming :)


	4. Chapter 1: A Different Life

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Chapter 1: A Different Life

Crona awoke with a violent shiver, shooting into an upright sitting position. He blearily surveyed his immediate area and found that he couldn't see anything other than an impenetrable wall of inky darkness, his eyes refusing to adjust to it.

Fear took hold of him for a moment and he made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, suddenly feeling the urge to whimper feebly at his predicament until he heard a loud and painful sounding snore somewhere over to his right. Cautiously he turned to face the direction the noise had come from.

Another snore.

As if granting him his wish, Crona's eyes finally adjusted themselves to the lighting conditions and revealed a sleeping Soul sitting on what appeared to be a kitchen/dining room chair, his unsupported head hanging backwards.

At the sight of that, the fear Crona felt evaporated as quickly as it had come and amusement appeared in its stead.

Soul snored once more, this one being the loudest Crona had heard so far, it was followed this time by a sudden jerking movement as Soul fell forwards, his face landing with a thud on a large opened textbook. This didn't bother the boy however, as he continued his slumber without the threat of any further snoring.

Crona was sure that he shouldn't have been as fascinated with what had just happened as he was, but then again he had found a great many things fascinating these days. He couldn't help but wonder if some of Professor Stein's habits were rubbing off on him a little.

He looked around a bit more until his eyes fell on Maka sitting just across from him at the coffee table. Her head was also resting on an open textbook, a pencil in her relaxed hand just a few inches away from her face.

How he was able to miss her there the first time confused Crona, but he pushed those thoughts away for the moment and just simply chose to watch her in silence.

She was dressed in what appeared to be her pyjamas. He noticed that her hair was also out of its usual pigtail constraints, instead it now fell over her face as she breathed quietly in her sleep.

Crona slowly reached over and tucked the unruly hair behind her ear, revealing her facial features. He kept his hand hovering near her face for a moment longer and felt a heat rising up in face as he stayed frozen in that position.

After a few seconds he shook his head to clear his mind and subsequently leaned over the table until his face was just mere inches from the side of her face. Using all that he could muster, he moved his mouth closer and closer to her cheek.

In her position going for the lips was out of the question.

_No, not like this._

Crona snapped his head back up and stood. In one swift motion he grabbed his belongings and made his way out the door, closing it soundlessly behind him.

Unbeknownst to him, Maka opened her eyes and sighed.

"So close..."

* * *

><p>Crona found his way out onto the street and started his short walk back to his own apartment, angry thoughts flowed through his mind at a mile a minute. He then fell back onto an old paranoid habit:<p>

"Wh-what the hell was I thinking?" He thought aloud. "If Maka woke up and saw that she'd hate me and if she hated me, the others would hate me too. I can't deal with everybody hating me!"

He sped up his pace, as if running from an invisible threat.

_Maka can't know._

Eventually Crona found himself at his door and let himself in, immediately making a bee-line for his bed.

As he lay there for what felt like hours, sleep evaded him, and he was convinced that this had to do with his body punishing him for his perceived indiscretion. He felt an uncomfortable tugging grow within his heart and clutched at the fabric of his shirt just above it.

_Why does caring for someone hurt this much?_

* * *

><p>Morning came, and with it, the early morning rush of students as they made their way to the academy for a new year of classes. Maka patiently stood at it's door, next to a sign that read: 'First Year Students Tour'.<p>

She straightened her name tag for what felt like the twentieth time and looked down at it.

'Maka Albarn: Two Star Meister'

She still couldn't believe it. After the Kishin's death and her subsequent recovery from her injuries, Maka trained and studied hard, eventually graduating at the top of her class, earning herself a promotion much earlier than anyone else. Blackstar didn't take to this very well at first, after all, he was the one that was going to surpass god.

_That Blackstar has to really get his head out of his butt. _Maka snickered at the thought.

She continued to watch as the steady flow of students coming up the stairs turned into more of a trickle, but the first years were still no-where to be seen. Aside from one very nervous looking girl that fidgeted with her jacket under Maka's scrutiny.

Her thoughts turned to the events of the previous night.

Contrary to what Crona had thought, she had woken up to the strange strangled noise he made but chose to continue feigning sleep to see if he did anything... interesting...

Her cheeks warmed up and turned a pleasant rosy colour. The first year student gave her an odd look.

Maka felt disappointed though. After coming so close to giving her a simple peck on the cheek, Crona turned tail and ran.

She was disappointed. Disappointed, but not surprised.

She thought that it might have been a little bit presumptuous of her to think that Crona would go through with it. He may slowly be getting better and coming out of his shell bit by bit, but he was and forever would be a damaged individual, afraid to get too close to anyone for fear of rejection or mistreatment.

Despite all his progress, this still made Maka sad. Sad and also angry at the lingering effects that Medusa's influence had on Crona. He had come so far, yet he still couldn't quite make that last hurdle.

She knew even before the Kishin's death that she had felt something for the pink haired boy, something that she couldn't quite describe at the time. At some point in the last five years she clearly identified the emotion to herself, but refused to act upon it.

No. She would wait for Crona to find himself first. She knew how he felt, it was almost too obvious, but pushing him into something like this would be counter-productive and could potentially destroy what little stability he's managed to accrue after all this time.

Thoughts of Crona continued to drift through Maka's mind and her eyes glazed over slightly as she started to daydream.

She was startled out of her reverie by a first year waving in her face.

"Miss. Miss! We're all here now miss, could you show us around now?"

The confidence in the boy's voice diminished as soon as Maka looked at him.

"Alright then!" Maka responded, turning to look at the whole group. "Lets get started. As you can see on my name tag, my name is Maka Albarn. I'm a two star meister that graduated from the education programme here at the academy just last year. You can continue calling me 'Miss', but personally I'd prefer it if you just called me Maka".

Maka beamed at the first years.

"Now that that's sorted out, let me show you around an introduce you to the teachers!"

* * *

><p>Crona stood in the shadows and watched Maka as she waited for her tour group. Despite the urge to go and greet her, he could not bring himself to do it. He was certain that Maka hadn't seen anything last night, so why did he feel like he should be embarrassed?<p>

He then pushed the thoughts to one side. He was getting good at that, it helped him maintain control. At least for a little while longer than normal.

With his mind clear of distractions for the time being, Crona walked into the academy and made his way to the Death Room as he had done so every week day for almost three years now.

* * *

><p><em>Following the expulsion of the black blood from his system, Crona was essentially powerless. It seemed that whatever ability he had as a meister disappeared, along with his blood hardening powers.<em>

_For a time, he was just content to live out his life peacefully and enjoy spending time with Maka and the others, but the serenity he felt was short lived._

_Two years into his new life Crona experienced his first illness. Having never been sick before, his body didn't really know how to cope with the disease, and so in an effort to protect itself it put Crona into a comatose state that lasted for two days straight._

_On the third day Crona awoke to an intense pain and started seizing. Stein tried his best to stop it, but before he could get close enough he was violently forced away by what he could only identify as a strong soul wavelength._

_When Stein recovered, he observed an incredible scene: it appeared that whatever had been inside Crona's burst of soul wavelength energy had been utterly disintegrated. Stein counted his blessings, thankful that it had only forced him away and not killed him._

_Stein was no fool though, Crona should not have had that much of a strong wavelength left. He had almost completely exhausted it permanently when he pushed the black blood from his body. Stein surmised that what he had witnessed was Crona's latent witch powers emerging. Powers that he had no doubt inherited from Medusa._

_Stein ran towards where Crona lay and proceeded to make the standard medical checks, to be sure that he was alright. Stein's mind started forming plans and contingencies._

_If Crona wasn't trained to harness this new-found power, the next unexpected burst might cost someone their life. Unfortunately none of the teachers knew anything about controlling witch ablities aside from Stein himself, so he would have to train Crona, at least until he could control his powers..._

_Stein grinned as he cleaned his glasses on his lab coat. It may not be as fun as a good old dissection, but its still something new and interesting to do! He'd just need a large, but isolated space to use._

"_Perhaps Lord Death would know of one?"_

* * *

><p>Crona arrived at his destination and knocked on the door. In a matter of seconds the door flew open to reveal a towering black figure with a white skull mask. It raised it's very large hand to its side in a gesture of greeting.<p>

"Hey ya! How's it hanging?"

No matter how many times Lord Death tried this type of greeting with him, Crona could not deal with it. He was just too big and scary. So he tried his best to get out a hasty reply.

"G-Good morning Lord D-Death Sir!"

The Grim Reaper looked Crona over for a moment before laughing.

"Now, now Crona! Don't be so paranoid, you've been here for years now and you still fear the sight of me. If I were a lesser Reaper I'd feel insulted".

Crona couldn't respond. Despite Death's friendly nature and attempts to be kind, for Crona it still all boiled down to one fact: he was Death incarnate. That scared Crona silly, no matter how much Maka coached him for his meetings with the deity, he surprised himself that he was able to develop enough to even resist running away, so that had to do for now.

Death chuckled again.

"Don't worry my boy, no matter how long it takes, you'll eventually get used to me. For now though you should go and carry on with your training, Stein is waiting for you inside. Have fun!"

Death hovered past the boy and shut the door behind him.

Crona proceeded through the guillotine archways until he reached Stein near Death's mirror. The older man turned towards him, his glasses gleamed in the light, obscuring his eyes.

"Okay Crona, we'll start with the warm-ups just like we do every day. Lets see that impressive soul wavelength again".

Wordlessly, Crona nodded and sparked up his soul wavelength as well as his perception abilities and scowled at the purple energy that he could see flowing out of his body. The power he exuded felt uncomfortable and made him feel sick every time without fail.

Every time he allowed this energy to flow through him he could feel it trying to skew his morals.

He could hear it whisper to him in attempt to control him.

Luckily enough though it was nothing compared to the madness he had to fight against when harbouring the black blood, so he could resist it easily enough.

The one thing he hated most about the power on top of all these things though, was that it always reminded him of his mother and that was never good...

* * *

><p>Author's Note:<p>

Sorry about the delay with this chapter, I've had an 'interesting' last few days.  
>If you were to think that this chapter was more of a chunk of padding than actual story, you'd probably be right - I just thought that it might be prudent to set the stage for main story's timeline.<p>

Hope you enjoyed it! Review please! :D

AMW89


	5. Chapter 2: Enter the Enemy

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Chapter 2: Enter the Enemy

Death City's Old Town district hadn't seen a lot of public activity in the last few decades, instead, the area was now only really frequented by vagrants and those of the criminal element that were too scared to set up shop any closer to the DWMA.

But tonight it had, Old Town had found itself some new guests...

Adrenaline pumping through his veins; Ox Ford bolted through the dilapidated streets, his lungs burning with every inhalation of precious oxygen. He ran for what seemed like forever until he spotted a safe looking corner he could hide in and take a breather.

_More chance of staying alive if I don't pass out whilst running for my life._

As stealthily as he could, Ox took a quick look back around the corner for any sign of his pursuer and saw...

Nothing.

A wave of relief passed through him but was soon followed by the distinctly unpleasant feelings associated with his sudden loss of adrenaline now that he was in the clear: intense nausea settled in his stomach and pain shot through his forearm as blood flowed freely out of a long gash in unison with his heart beat.

He had been lucky, a gash on his arm was nothing compared to what might have happened had he been slower. Harvar was less lucky though...

Harvar, his weapon partner, was gone **forever**. Killed whilst out on patrol with Ox.

_It happened so fast. _

_Out of no-where a black sword had drove itself through Harvar's back, severing his spine and piercing his heart. There was no emotional scene in which he was able to rasp out his goodbyes. _

_Death was instant and bloody._

_That wasn't all though, the assailant's sword then screamed with a sadistic pleasure, atomizing Harvar's body and turning it into a graphic red spray whilst simultaneously his soul was absorbed into a mouth on the blade._

Ox used his good arm to wipe away a stray tear that had found its way out. He wanted to scream, he wanted to rip apart this monster that had killed his best friend, but it was useless now without a weapon partner to fight with, he'd have to retreat for now and warn the DWMA.

Maybe not quite yet though, he could hear movement.

"Hey, what was with the running away? I thought if I showed you a neat trick you'd want to be my friend? I guess some people just can't help being a jackass."

Ox froze and his blood went cold.

The voice had come from the direction of his intended escape route. He turned slowly and was greeted with a skinny, but decidedly male, figure silhouetted in the moonlight. He couldn't make out his features though.

"Goddamn! Look at the mess you're making there, you're bleeding all over the show! I like the colour though. Red. It contrasts nicely against the dilapidated greys and blacks in this neighbourhood."

The figure took a step forward. Ox took a step back and hit the wall.

"Not like my blood though, mine would just blend in unnoticed. Not that you'd ever find out."

The figure closed the gap between Ox and himself, moving out of the moonlight's glare and revealing his face.

Ox couldn't be sure of what he was seeing. He knew this was the end the road for him, but he had to know. After all, knowledge was there to be gained, no-matter what the circumstances.

"Crona?"

The figure growled at the name and violently grabbed Ox's head between his hands.

"Don't lump me in with that whiny bitch!"

And in a fit of sudden rage he pressed his hands together, crushing Ox's head like it was nothing. He let the body crumple down into a heap on the ground.

The figure leant down to the corpse and punched his hand into it's chest, the action made a sickening crunching sound and after a few seconds of concentration he found what he was looking for and pulled out Ox's soul. Satisfied, he stared at the soul hungrily before devouring it.

The figure moaned in pleasure and licked his lips.

"Oh I've missed this taste".

* * *

><p>Crona fell to his knees, panting.<p>

Nearby, Stein dropped his defensive stance and observed himself with a smirk, noticing several bruises and shallow cuts.

_Crona is improving._

Stein noted that at first, not having a sword made Crona seem like a fish out of water. Having been trained most of his life in the way of the sword, he felt uncomfortable with the sword-less circumstances with which he had to fight in. Now though, Stein was proud to note that Crona had finally started to rig the odds in his favour: with sheer force of will, Crona had managed to use his powers to physically manifest a sword from his soul wavelength energy.

He had gotten the idea from his final battle with Medusa, who had been using a sword formed from her own energy. Despite his initial doubts about taking a leaf out of his mother's playbook, doing this had made Crona feel at least a little bit more comfortable with himself and finally opened the door to new potential uses for his magic.

"Alright Crona" Stein said, as he straightened his glasses. "I think that'll be it for today. You've certainly been improving exponentially these last couple of weeks, go home for the weekend and get some well deserved rest okay?"

Crona looked at Stein with dull eyes and stood up, wobbling a little before regaining his balance.

"Yes Professor"

Immediately he turned and ran out as fast as he could.

Stein Sighed. He knew Crona didn't particularly enjoy training with these powers, all it did was bring back memories of his deranged mother. Stein would have liked nothing more than to grant Crona his wish for a peaceful life, but unfortunately this was for the good of himself and those close to him.

* * *

><p>As was the norm after every training session, Crona made a bee line for the nearest toilet stall and vomited what little he had managed to eat that morning.<p>

Usage of magic always resulted in fast acting, post-usage withdrawal like symptoms that made him sick every time without fail. This was a problem that was only exacerbated by the seemingly addictive nature that the magic seemed to have.

Despite the constant desire for more though, he despised the origin of these powers. He would have liked nothing more than to just forget Medusa's existence and live a quiet life, unnoticed by those who'd seek to harm him, but that was difficult now that every day was a reminder of his inescapable connection to his accursed mother.

"_It's unfortunate" _Stein had said as he slowly twisted the bolt in his head. _"I know you don't like having to do this, but you have to learn how to control these powers or you could end up hurting those you care about, Surely you wouldn't want to risk Maka like that?"_

Crona wasn't sure if Stein was playing him like a violin or if he was telling the truth, but one thing was certain; never in a million years would he run the risk of Maka getting hurt. Especially by his own hand again, accidental or no.

After making sure that he wouldn't be sick again, Crona hesitantly opened the door and quickly scanned the toilet area for signs of life.

He sighed in relief, just happy to not be noticed during one of his post training episodes again. Last time it had been a coincidental run in with Soul, who had subsequently dragged him to Maka, who then fussed over him to the Nth degree.

As he washed his hands, he looked at himself in the mirror.

Bloodshot eyes stared back at him. His face pallid with a slight sheen created by sweat. Had others not known any better, they'd think that he was on drugs. He decided that he would quickly wash his face too.

His toilet hygiene ritual completed, Crona exited the bathroom and made his way to the entrance hall.

On his way down the stairs of the main tower, he could not shake the feeling that he was being watched. Hesitantly he stopped and looked away from his feet, focusing his vision on a lone hooded figure at the bottom of the staircase.

The figure never moved, instead it just stared up at Crona, it's face hidden under a veil of darkness.

Crona tensed and his eyes widened in fear.

His mind screamed danger, but his feet didn't respond to his requests to flee. Instead he just stood there, petrified. He was almost certain that this person, whoever it was, was not a fan.

Seconds felt like hours for him as he continued to stare at the motionless person, worried that if he so much as blinked he was as good as done for. Unfortunately, biology had other ideas and Crona could resist no longer.

When his vision refocused, the person was gone.

Crona's body released control back to his command and he clutched his arm tightly, as he always did when worried or uncertain.

He was sure now that whatever **that **was, it was just a construct of his mind created by by his own deep-seated paranoia, but that reasoning didn't do much to calm his frayed nerves.

* * *

><p>In the shadows, the figure watched silently as Crona started to move down the stairs again and had to contain his disgust when Crona constantly looked over his shoulder to make sure no-one was following him.<p>

He wanted to end his pathetic existence once and for all, but the pieces weren't set yet, he had to wait until Crona met up with the meddling blonde before he could put his plan into action.

_Almost there, you traitorous little dweeb._

* * *

><p>Maka paced backwards and forwards in the entrance hall of the DWMA as she waited for Crona like she did every evening. Soul had said to her that she was going to walk a hole in the floor, but ceased and desisted at the threat of a Maka chop and then left several minutes later.<p>

Thoughts of weekly meister and weapon meeting milled around her head and they weren't what she'd call pleasant at all.

_Lord Death floated into the room sombrely, although how Maka was able to tell escaped even herself._

_All the two star meisters and graduated first star meisters were gathered for their weekly meeting, which was usually run by either Sid or Spirit, depending on availability. So the presence of Death himself led Maka to believe that she should prepare herself for the worst._

_Dispensing of his usual up-beat attitude, Lord Death spoke in his normally hidden serious tone._

"_I'm afraid it had come to my attention that there have been a string of murders in the city. All the victims were found in some grotesquely maimed form with their souls removed."_

_The air in the room grew heavy at this announcement. Murmurs began to travel, but were quickly silenced by Death's raised hand._

"_It is also with great regret, that I am here to inform you that your fellow colleagues, meister Ox Ford and weapon Harvar D. E__clair are among those that were found."_

_Gasps were made in unison and several rows in-front of Maka, Kim went into a fit of hysterical sobbing._

Maka didn't know what to think about all of it. Being a two star meister, she was already privy to the string of murders, but the killing of Ox and Harvar was new and she couldn't help but wonder if it was all an in an effort to a message.

Ox was no close friend of hers and she hardly even knew Harvar, but they were by no means on unpleasant terms with one another, they were friendly academic rivals. But now they were gone and Maka felt disgusted with at her own inability to properly grieve for their loss.

One thing was for certain though: she'd avenge their deaths. It was the least she could do for them and for the distraught Kim.

She caught sight of Crona on the other side of the of the entrance hall, clutching at his arm and staring at the floor as he briskly walked towards the exit. From what Maka could tell, he had not yet noticed her. All thoughts of the meister and weapon meeting disappeared from her mind and her lips drew up into a mischievous smile as she silently circled around until she was behind him...

* * *

><p>Crona just wanted to go home and collect his thoughts.<p>

The day had been trying for him. Not only did he have to endure a ridiculous training session that he was sure would send even Blackstar crying for his mommy, he also had to deal with it whilst his mind was plagued with thoughts of Maka.

She was becoming his ultimate distraction and weakness, but couldn't bring himself to begrudge her for that, as it wasn't her fault after all. Besides, he kind of liked the warmth her presence brought and the happiness that his memories of her had never ceased to give him.

Without warning, soft hands obscured Crona's vision and interrupted his thoughts, eliciting from him a shocked whimper. He couldn't deal with people sneaking up on him.

"Guess who?"

Well, he could deal with it if it was _her._

He knew that voice anywhere and the realisation seemed to instantly soothe him, the stressful day's events seemingly falling away, leaving Crona feeling light and almost giddy.

"Amanda."

Maka wasn't sure she heard his response correctly. "Huh?".

_Who's Amanda?_

Crona extricated himself from Maka's hands and turned to face her, his expression unreadable. "Oh Maka, it's you! Sorry, I totally thought you were Amanda".

Silence hung in the air and Crona started to feel uncomfortable. Maka just stared into space and Crona could almost see the cogs spinning in her head.

Maka was caught off guard. _Since when did he start using the word 'totally'? AND WHO THE HELL IS AMANDA?_

Crona shuffled his feet and stared back at the floor, he knew he shouldn't have told a joke. It was a quote from a comedy show he had stumbled upon a few weeks prior and thought that in the context it might have been amusing, even if he had never really told a joke before.

And now Maka seemed to be stuck somehow.

Had he broken her?

Was that even possible?

Fear once again reared it's ugly head and Crona hesitantly waved a hand in-front of her face. "I... I'm sorry Maka! I was just q-quoting a show I'd seen before and thought it would - I thought it would be funny, but I should have known y-y-you wouldn't get it if you hadn't s-seen it yourself!"

Maka snapped out of her stupor and mentally slapped herself for the second time that day.

Crona told a joke! He tried to make her laugh and she completely shut down due to a misguided worry that he had been seeing other girls behind her back. If she didn't fix this fast, he'd never try to joke again.

"No! No Crona its fine, don't worry about it. Its me who should be sorry, I just kinda spaced out there, sorry. Busy day and all, you know the kind!" Maka playfully nudged him on the arm and unleashed her sweetest smile. "I'm glad to see you trying your hand at humor now though, how about you tell me about that show you were talking about on our way back to your apartment?"

Maka offered Crona her hand and he stared at it as he gingerly grasped it in his own.

This wasn't anything new, they held hands often, but Maka couldn't help but blush slightly at the contact. She looked up at Crona again and smiled nervously.

Crona felt her fingers intertwine with his own and at the sight of her smile he felt like he could just melt into a puddle of pleasure, right there on the spot. Instead, he hung his head and allowed his pink hair to obscure his extremely red face as Maka started to lead him towards his home.

* * *

><p>By the time they reached Crona's apartment, both Crona and Maka's faces were still red.<p>

Reluctantly, Maka released Crona's hand and looked up into his grey eyes and allowed herself to get drawn in.

_I know I promised myself I wouldn't rush into things, but maybe I was wrong?_

"Crona, about last night..."

Before she could finish the sentence though, Crona grabbed her in a tight embrace, Maka's arms trapped between their respective bodies. At first, Maka thought that maybe he had beaten her to the punch had finally decided to make the first move.

That was until she felt a warm liquid flow onto her hands...

Time seemed to slow down and in horror she watched as Crona fell onto his hands and knees and violently coughed a large amount of blood onto the floor.

Maka looked then at the warm liquid she felt on her hands and saw more red.

_Wha... What the hell is happening?_

* * *

><p>Authors Note:<br>Cliffhanger much?

It took me much longer to write this chapter than I had originally planned, but this was due to revisions to original plot. Luckily, these changes don't affect the chapters that were already up.

Anyway, I'm happy with this chapter, but If any of you feel that it's no good, you should let me know how I could improve :)  
>(So long as you don't take that as an opportunity to badmouth it for no reason, because that's just not cool :P).<p>

P.s. I'm still a little unsure, does the amount of graphic violence and blood seem okay for a T rating or should I change it?


	6. Chapter 3: Fight or Flight? Part 1

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Chapter 3: Fight or Flight? [Part 1]

_Crona floated slowly through a murky darkness._

_Unable to see anything. Unable to move. Unable to speak. The silence was paradoxically deafening._

_He wasn't sure what was going on, was he dead? _

_The last thing he remembered was protecting Maka from an attack and he wasn't even sure how he knew it was going to happen, only that there was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that forced him into action._

_If he was dead he didn't mind, as long as Maka was safe._

"_But is she safe?"_

_The voice caught him at unawares, its tone was smooth and confident._

"_You may have stopped the attack, but who's to say that the perpetrator gave up after you foolishly got in the way?"_

_Crona's mind was foggy, its cognitive responses, sluggish. He couldn't quite process the meaning behind what the voice had said, yet he felt that the it was somehow familiar..._

"_She could be in danger you know. While you're just floating around in your subconscious, Maka could have been killed." The voice took on an amused tone. "Perhaps even tortured before hand?"_

_With a new rage fuelling his body, Crona's senses sharpened and his mind cleared. Yet he was still unable to speak._

_The voice in the darkness continued. "So what are you going to do? Sit there and cower like a useless child, or stand up and fight?" _

_Yellow eyes snapped open in front of Crona, mere inches away from his face._

"_Use the power given to you!"_

* * *

><p>Crona's eyes snapped open with a gut wrenching cough.<p>

The first thing he noticed was the cobblestone road right in his face and a warmth under his torso. Slowly he rolled over to his side and inspected his body.

He almost wished he hadn't.

Blood covered most of his chest, and on the right-hand side he could spot a small black point emerging from within. Judging by the sudden debilitating pain he felt, the object must have travelled all the way through from his back, had it passed through him completely, it would have pierced Maka too.

But where was she?

* * *

><p>Maka was screwed, she knew that. Without a weapon to fight with she couldn't defend herself, but if she were honest she didn't really want to any more.<p>

The person she dedicated her life to lay on the far side of street, motionless and in a pool of his own blood. She just stood there, unable to look away, Maka became numb towards the rest of the world, memories of her last battle with Medusa sprang to mind and the tears that were streaming out of her eyes unconsciously only increased in their intensity.

_Why did this have to happen again? Why is he always the one protecting me?_

Maka felt the assailant put pressure on her neck and lift her up into the air, squeezing the life out of her. Despite the pain she didn't care, she was content to just hang there and stare at Crona's unmoving body as the air in her lungs left her slowly. She hoped that if there was a heaven, she would find him there waiting for her.

The squeeze intensified, Maka couldn't help herself any-more and screamed in agony.

She had heard stories that asphyxiation was one of the worst ways to go and now with first hand experience, as her vision grew dark and her heartbeat slowed, she whole heartedly agreed.

A painful, throaty sounding cough tore through the silence coming from the direction of...

_CRONA!_

With her remaining strength, Maka struggled to open her eyes and check for confirmation. Sure enough, Crona had moved to lie down on his side and was currently facing away from her, probably inspecting his injuries – unaware of what was going on behind him.

Satisfied that her pink haired companion was indeed alive, Maka's drive to survive re-ignited.

She couldn't call out to him or scream anymore, she was no longer able to with a hand clamped around her oesophagus.

With a great deal of effort, she twisted her head to face her captor and was greeted with the sight of an extremely skinny man, his body not dissimilar in build to Crona. The mere fact he held her up with one arm seemed impossible for someone of his build. His face, however, was frustratingly veiled in darkness due to a large dark hood he sported.

Adrenaline started to course through Maka's body in waves, her body seemingly gaining strength with each one and in one swift movement she raised her body, using the attacker's arm as a support, and kicked the man in the face as hard as she could – the impact making a disturbing crunch as her boots collided with flesh.

The surprise was enough to make him drop her to the floor and she noted (with some satisfaction) that he was clutching at his face, a liquid squirming its way through his pale fingers.

It was black.

Maka's eyes widened in disbelief.

_It couldn't be..._

* * *

><p>Crona found it difficult to breath, he attributed this to the very likely possibility that his right lung was pierced in the attack, the damage causing it to collapse shortly afterwards. Movement felt impossible, the exertion would use up more oxygen and with only one lung, he had precious little of it being absorbed into the body. If he didn't do something soon, he'd pass out and maybe even die.<p>

He was pretty sure he couldn't deal with that.

He couldn't let himself die anyway, at least not until he knew Maka was safe and sound.

"CRONA!"

Crona's senses snapped to attention.

_Was that Maka?_

Crona rolled over to face the voice and his suspicions were confirmed. Maka was cornered at the end of the dead end street by a hooded figure dressed in black, something about the person seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place it.

The figure lunged at Maka, grabbed her by the hair, and lifted her up. She screamed in pain and Crona could see tears running down her face.

"Crona..." Pain was easily detectable in her tone. "You can't fight him, just run. Please, you don't have to worry about me!"

The attacker chose the subsequent silence to finally have himself heard, his hooded head turned to face Crona's prone form.

"Awww nuts! Here I was thinking that due to your constant inability to cope with anything, that you'd go down in one shot, you know?" The hooded head shook in what Crona sensed was feigned disdain. "I'm glad to see you're awake though, because now I can kill little-miss brainiac in-front of you just like I had planned in the first place. That'll get you all good and screwed up in the head now wouldn't it?"

The figure shook Maka by the hair to emphasize his point, laughing at her screams and mocking her tears of pain.

"Or you know, you could just let me kill you out-right and maybe, _just _maybe I'll let the little she-pig go."

The name made Crona's mind reel. This was impossible!

_Ragnarok._

When he expelled the black blood, Crona assumed that he had eliminated any chances of Ragnarok's survival had he been alive, Crona only went through with it because he though Ragnarok was dead. What he was seeing was impossible.

"No! You-you're dead. You're supposed to be dead! I thought you were dead!" Crona's body started to convulse, he didn't know what to think any more.

Ragnarok halted his abuse of Maka and venom laced his words as he looked back at Crona and responded.

"_Supposed_ to be dead? So you admit that you were just getting rid of me? Throwing me away? If I weren't so pissed at you I'd be almost impressed that you showed balls for once in your life."

Crona couldn't deal with this. Ragnarok was twisting his words. "Ragnarok... I thought you were d-dead already. You disappeared!"

Ragnarok's obscured face turned to Maka once again and Crona felt an uncomfortable feeling grip at his heart, whatever happened next wasn't going to be good.

"I'm afraid that just ain't good enough."

Crona watched in a paralysed horror as Ragnarok stuck Maka in the stomach whilst he still held her, knocking the wind out of her. He then dropped her to the ground and kicked her into the nearest wall, said wall cracking at the force.

She made no sound, having fallen unconscious before the renewed assault.

Crona felt so helpless. He was failing to protect her, breaking his promise to both her and himself that he would forever keep her safe, but he could not seem to do anything about it, his damaged body would not allow him to get up and fight.

His world was crashing down around him, and he had no idea what to do...

* * *

><p>Despite his outward rage, Ragnarok was enjoying himself extremely. He was about to finally get his revenge.<p>

It was his determination to kill the traitor that allowed him to stay alive and literally rebuild himself. It gave him the strength of will to absorb the necessary amount of human lives and attain kishin egg status and get to this point.

He was certain that he had not yet reached his full potential, but was also confident that he needed nothing more to eradicate his ex-meister. He could continue his meteoric rise to supremacy after Crona got his just deserves, maybe he could even become the next fully fledged kishin...

The thought excited Ragnarok. He couldn't wait.

_It's only a matter of time, but first I have to get rid of Crona and destroy anything and everything he cared about. At least that way he'll have some company in hell._

Ragnarok dragged Maka's body by the leg to get it closer to Crona, so that he'd have a perfect view of his friend's demise. Dropping her, he then held the same arm he had just used in front of himself and formed the familiar black broadsword that used to be the extent of his physical body during his time as a parasite.

He almost felt nostalgic. Almost.

Slowly he positioned the sword above Maka's throat and then chuckled. "First I'll kill this little bitch to make you suffer and then I'll kill you, nice and slow".

But before he could make the killing blow, something struck the side of his head and sent Ragnarok crashing into the wall he had just kicked Maka into. The irony was not lost on him.

The attack hurt and he found this confusing. At his current level a punch from Crona should not have even phased him, but something was wrong - the punch that was thrown at him was charged with a powerful wavelength.

_What in the goddamn...?_

Looking over to Crona's now upright form, he saw something that made him nervous, if only for a few seconds.

Crona's body was surrounded by a purple soul wavelength of an almost unreal size, it's chaotic energy radiated a powerful intent to kill. Ragnarok would have felt worried had it not been for tell-tale signs of instability; the wavelength was flickering and weakening with each passing moment.

He still had the upper hand.

But still, he felt like he had seen a power like this somewhere else before, but he couldn't quite place it.

* * *

><p>Crona stood perfectly still and his head hung low, pink hair obscured his face from the world as he coughed violently - blood splattering on both himself and the ground with each heave.<p>

He would take a beating. He even would have gladly died by Ragnarok's hand as he felt he deserved it after what he did to him, but he could not and would not allow him to hurt Maka any-more or even threaten to kill her. _That_ was a big no-no.

He didn't know where the sudden strength to move came from, never-mind the strength to send Ragnarok hurtling through the air. He also didn't know how he was able to do any of this in such a weakened near death state, but he also didn't care. So long as this burst of energy lasted long enough for him to obliterate the demon sword once and for all, he could fight through the pain to protect _her._

Before he did anything more Crona made sure to release his soul protect, that way Stein would at least be on his way to help if anything went wrong.

Slowly, he raised his head to face the still incapacitated Ragnarok and relaxed his body. Despite himself, he licked his lips sadistically and found himself speaking automatically, his tone filled with a confidence previously unheard of.

"You crossed the line Ragnarok, now it's time I finally taught you a lesson in respect."

At Crona's sides, two dark broadswords of substantial size materialised in his hands, their blades crackling with a dark energy.

* * *

><p>Maka's stomach hurt, <em>A LOT.<em> But if there was something good that came of it, it was that the pain had roused her from her unconscious state. She clutched at her stomach in a futile attempt to alleviate it somehow.

_I don't remember getting hit._

Standing over her, Maka could sense the presence of an incredibly powerful (if not a little unstable) soul wavelength. The power that radiated off of it reeked of killing intent and barely restrained rage, but under all of that she could feel a very familiar, confused and scared soul...

_Crona?_

Despite the obviously horrific state his soul was in, Maka took comfort in the fact that he was at least still alive. She could work on his emotional and mental well-being later, after they defeated Ragnarok.

Opening her eyes to survey the scene visually, Maka saw something that shook her to the very core of her being: Just above her prone form, Crona stood defiantly, opposing the currently unmoving Ragnarok.

But that was not what frightened her, what frightened her was his _face._

Crona's features had changed somehow. His face didn't really seem like his own any more, it was twisted. Evil. His usually grey eyes had transformed into a hate filled golden-yellow, the pupils morphed into an inhuman shape.

The person that stood there was _**not**_ Crona. Not really. The Crona that she knew was buried deep within his own soul, fighting to find his way back out.

The relief Maka had felt up until now vanished.

With a movement so fast that she had almost missed it, Crona threw the broadsword in his left hand at Ragnarok. The startled demon sword didn't have enough time to react and was viciously skewered by the blade, pinning him to the wall. Maka wasn't sure whether she should cheer or cry at the sight.

Would Crona go back to being his same old self when the fight was through? She hoped so, he made a promise to her after-all.

_Crona... Please come back to me._

* * *

><p>Crona wasn't sure if it had to do with his injured state or the adrenaline, but at the precise moment he conjured his weapons all control of his own body was lost – surrendered somehow to something else that dwelled within him. He definitely was not at the wheel any-more.<p>

He watched the impaling of Ragnarok as if it were happening on a TV screen - disconnected from the battle. He couldn't even look down and check to see if Maka was still okay, and the thought frustrated him to no end.

The energy that he felt was alien and it was burning his very soul, slowly absorbing it. Eating him up. But there was little he could do now other than just watch and prepare for the inevitable catastrophe – a barely detectable presence in his mind was amused at his struggle.

"_Just relax. I'll take care of everything"._

Crona's free hand reached up to his chest and ripped the black spike right out of his body. The action caused him to scream in pain, but no actual sound found its way out of his lips.

A fresh flow of blood begun to pour out at a steady pace and this caused Crona to feel light headed and woozy, but his body stood fast, staring down the franticly struggling Ragnarok.

Crona's feet began to move of their own accord and his body made its way towards its adversary, the sheer thirst for blood that came from this 'split personality' threatened to suffocate Crona. Not that he felt much different – the apathy he felt for Ragnarok now that he had almost killed Maka had reached levels he never thought he was capable of feeling towards anyone other than Medusa.

Crona's body reached out towards Ragnarok, grabbed the broadsword that impaled the demon weapon and pulled it out of the wall in an impressive display of physical strength. He then swung the sword out to his left side, flinging Ragnarok off the blade and splattering black blood all over the street.

Ragnarok recovered quickly though and stood up to take hasty defensive stance. He was obviously was a lot tougher than his thin frame let on.

Crona swung at him, the attack feral. His body was working on pure instinct now and he was worried that whatever kept him from regaining control was not concerned for his body's well-being.

Ragnarok was slow to respond, only finding enough time to throw his arm out in defence. The sword hit it with a dull thud, stopping mid-swing, he was still fast enough to activate his black blood, but the force of the impact was still such that forced him to his knees.

'Pseudo' Crona gave him no time to counter the assault and followed up with a knee to the face that hit with an inhuman strength. The attack snapped Ragnarok's head back as he fell to the ground painfully, his sword dissolved into nothingness and the hood he had been wearing up until now fell down and revealed the antagonist's bloodied face.

Yellow eyes met black ones, the black irises of Ragnarok's in the shape of almost unnoticeable, very small X shapes, but this was inconsequential to what the rest of what Crona saw.

As he stared at Ragnarok, the blood thirsty persona that had been in control up until now fell away.

He was at a mirror image of himself. A mirror image with a few subtle differences: the first being the eyes and the second having to do with the fact that Ragnarok had black hair instead of pink.

Crona could not find it in himself to re-focus on the task at hand.

* * *

><p>It took a few seconds for Ragnarok's vision to clear up and his head to stop swimming, but when they eventually did he found Crona standing a mere foot away, staring uncomprehendingly at Ragnarok's now exposed face.<p>

He was hoping it wouldn't come to this.

Ragnarok waited for a few moments longer, cautious to make any sudden moves lest Crona finish him off before he could do anything. He had underestimated him this time and knew that should he get out of this alive, he'd need to beef up his strength a little bit more.

Crona just stood there and Ragnarok noticed that his features had returned to normal, his eyes also back to their usual grey.

_Now's my chance._

Ragnarok forced his damaged new body up from the ground and grabbed the statue like Crona by the side of his head and pushed him into the ground, head first. The impact created a very small crater where head had collided with stone. Crona fell unconscious instantly, any civilian would have been killed.

Ragnarok grimaced in pain at the exertion. "I was going to play around a bit more with you Crona, but you kinda surprised me there."

Ragnarok's sword re-materialized in his hands and he went to stand above Crona's body.

"I'm sure you're a bit confused about why I look like you aren't ya?"

He positioned the sword above Crona's throat, a mirroring the scene with Maka from earlier.

"Hell, I'm confused too, but the fact of the matter is that I don't really much time to shoot the shit with you, I'm gonna have to finish you off a bit early so I can go eat some souls to regenerate, or else I might die! Thanks for that by the way."

Ragnarok grabbed the blade's hilt with his free hand and prepared to thrust. Behind him he could hear Maka screaming herself hoarse and he turned his head to look at her and smile - satisfied that the grin would be enough to enrage her further and that Crona's imminent death would probably scar her mentally.

For the rest of her life she would never be able to recover.

Ragnarok turned to face the comatose Crona once more before closing his eyes to revel in the moment.

"Goodbye old buddy".

The black sword was thrust down and Ragnarok could feel it hit. He opened his eyes to admire his handiwork...

* * *

><p>Authors Note:<p>

Sorry about the delay, I re-wrote this chapter several times until I was happy with it, I've never done a chapter with this much physical conflict in, so I'm a little nervous about what you all may think of it.

The villain is now positively identified! I had to reveal Ragnarok for sure now because it was starting to get difficult to write for him and his personality whilst keeping his identity hidden. I've also revealed (in part) the antagonist for my planned sequel to the story, but that one is a long way down the line :)

As the title of the chapter suggests, this chapter is part of a two-part chapter, this one covering the 'Fight' part and the next one covering the 'Flight' part of 'Fight or Flight'.

Hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Reviews are appreciated!

AMW89


	7. Chapter 4: Fight or Flight?  Part 2

Author's Note: Might be worth mentioning that due to his injured state, Crona does not feature heavily in this chapter as a conscious character.

SORRY!

Anywaaaaaaaay... On with the show!

* * *

><p><strong>Looking Through the Mirror<strong>

Chapter 4: Fight or Flight? [Part 2]

Stein let out a sigh of relief.

He had rounded the corner into the street just as Ragnarok was about to attempt his killing blow on Crona. With the demon sword's eyes closed he had an easy window within which to pull Crona out of the way and assume a relaxed stance behind him.

He was lucky, the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Stein noticed with some confusion that the attacker was almost identical to Crona himself, but filed the observation away for a more appropriate time he could research it.

He watched with some semblance of amusement as the weapon stabbed at the ground blindly and then open his eyes, only to be met with a view of the cobblestone street floor.

"Maybe this'll teach you not to take your eyes off your target next time"

Ragnarok turned to face his new challenger with an annoyed look on his damaged face. Stein couldn't help it, there was something just delicious about toying with and mocking his prey. The feeling was enough to force him into cranking the bolt in his head with anticipation.

"I'm afraid I can't let you continue. You see, my weapon partner is rather fond of Crona and I just know that if I let you kill him I'd have a very angry and distressed Death Scythe on my hands".

The professor lit up his hands his soul wavelength crackled as it passed through them.

"I just can't have that you see? A distressed Marie is not conducive to the relaxed living conditions I require to maintain my sanity".

* * *

><p>Ragnarok had to take a few moments to process what it was that was happening.<p>

One moment he was relishing the sweet taste of imminent victory and revenge, the next he was being mocked by a monotonous drawl coming from behind him. Annoyed, he turned to face this new obstacle only to find the DWMA's top meister.

Stein continued to speak, but Ragnarok wasn't paying attention. The arrival of Franken Stein had stuck a massive wrench in his already screwed up plans. Despite issures, he had managed to bring things back under control.

Until now.

Ragnarok was irked further by the fact that Stein had blocked his one and only exit out of the dead end road, he also knew that in his current state he was in no position for a prolonged battle with another tough opponent. He may not be human, but his still new body screamed in pain and its damage made his responses sluggish and weak, If he was going to get out of there alive he'd have to fight Stein in order to find an opening within which he could quickly escape.

_Shit. This is bad._

"Who are you?" The question caught Ragnarok by surprise, he forgot that Stein wouldn't know who he was in this form.

"Despite obvious similarities to Crona, you are not him. So again, who are _you?_"

Ragnarok smirked, his reply was thick with condescension. "Who am I?" His hand gestured to himself, "so Mr Crazy doesn't remember me eh? Take a closer look then, bolt-for-brains".

* * *

><p>At the prompt, Stein used his soul perception to observe the doppelgänger's essence and was greeted by a purple soul encompassed by something in the shape of an X. Realisation hit Stein with a force that almost wiped the calm expression off his face, but yet he still managed to maintain his composure.<p>

"Oh. So it's you then Ragnarok". His face took on something of a bored expression. "I see that even after death you can't help but torment Crona".

He didn't know how the weapon had managed to survive the separation from his host, such things could be speculated upon later, though at least the mystery of his appearance was solved.

"Screw you". Ragnarok lashing out was not an unusual occurrence for the demon sword, but the outburst was nullified somewhat by the fact that he was clutching at a large wound on his stomach. Stein knew that Ragnarok was going to try and get away so that he may recuperate.

Without warning the weapon leapt into the air to attack, bringing his sword down towards Stein's head. Stein stopped the attack easily with one hand and attempted to use his other hand to hit Ragnarok with Soul Force, but Ragnarok just managed to spin around him and out of the way, all the while with his blade was still in Stein's hand.

The twisting movement eventually forced Stein to release the sword and quickly turn to face the weapon once again, but before Ragnarok could do anything else, Stein hit him in the stomach with the full brunt of his wavelength, the impact knocking Ragnarok several metres away.

* * *

><p>As the academy's top meister and the demon weapon fought, Maka made use of their distraction and edged her way over to Crona's still form.<p>

As she reached him she made the standard field checks she had been trained to do in order to determine his condition. She breathed a sigh of barely contained relief at the feel of his pulse under her fingers and for the second time that day, she felt salty tears well up in her eyes, her vision blurring with each blink.

_Twice_. In one short hour, Crona had shielded her from harm _twice_.

Concerns of his psychotic break mere moments before simply fell away, his current condition was now the subject of her focus. Maka pulled the young man into a tight embrace, his life's essence stained her jacket and clothes just as it had done when Crona had protected her from the first attack.

* * *

><p><em>Maka sat dutifully by Crona's side as he lay in bed at the infirmary.<em>

_Mere hours after he ran from her, a panicked Soul appeared with the unconscious sword Meister in his arms._

_After what felt like hours Crona was brought out of the operating theatre and placed in a bed next to her own. From what Stein had told her, Crona had attempted to expel the maddening influence of the black blood once and for all with surprisingly promising results, but all of this was unfortunately overshadowed by his currently weak condition. _

_Despite the fact that Maka was told that Crona was going to make a full recovery, she couldn't help but feel responsible somehow. The timing just seemed too coincidental to have been a mistake, but why would he do this so suddenly and without telling her first? _

_Did something she say to him earlier that day cause him to do it?_

_Maka clenched her hands into tight fists and allowed herself to ride out the brief wave of frustration._

_She wasn't going to let him out of her sight again._

_No. Maybe that was a bit unrealistic of her, but she was going to keep a closer eye on him this time to make sure he was okay and maintain a sense of vigilance should she ever perceive within him a need for her help._

_In the mean-time, she decided that once she was discharged from the infirmary she would enrol in Stein & Marie's Advanced Battlefield Treatment classes, lest something unexpected like this ever happened to Crona again._

_It would only be a small comfort to her as she realised that it would still not be enough should he be hurt too extensively, but at least she would be more prepared than she was now._

_Maka squeezed Crona's hand and stared at his relaxed features._

"_Don't worry Crona. I've got you"._

* * *

><p>Words could not describe how glad she felt now that she knew that Crona was still alive after the punishment he had withstood. Everything had happened so fast, the attack and ensuing battle only taking place during the brief twilight in-between the jovial sun's setting and the mischievous moon's rise.<p>

Crona's shallow breaths on her neck brought Maka back to reality, reminding her that it was all still far from over. As he was now, his condition could still go either way, thus he had to be treated immediately.

Maka moved to take off her long coat.

Despite the advanced training, her medical expertise did not cover serious internal injuries as such training only really resulted in a qualification as a glorified medic, with only a slight healing wavelength ability to distinguish her from the normal thing. As a result she could only stop the bleeding by putting some pressure on the would and wrapping it up in her coat – using the time it gave her to attempt to meld souls with Crona so that he may benefit from her weak healing aura.

It was at times like this that she cursed herself for not having as powerful a healing wavelength as Marie, but she resolved herself to make do.

* * *

><p>Ragnarok took a painful blow to the gut once again. Black blood erupted from his wound and he could feel himself starting to slip.<p>

_I'm getting my ass kicked and I've got no escape route to show for it!_

His frustration almost led to another direct hit, but he noticed the attack in time and clumsily stumbled out of the way, almost losing his balance.

"Get off my fucking case will ya?"

Stein halted his assault and regarded the weapon with a renewed gaze of disdain, this only irritated Ragnarok more. He thought of a plan, but it was a long shot...

"You know what? You scientist types really piss me off, with your aloof attitudes and your retarded glasses!"

He was a little disgusted with himself by how weak the insult was. He could do better.

_Time to change gears._

Ragnarok rubbed his nose and his expression morphed into that of someone smug. "You know, I've always wondered... How have you been since Medusa died? I only ask because that one was a real fire-cracker, she really knew how to push your buttons didn't she?

Stein visibly stiffened at the indirect mention of his affiliation with the witch.

* * *

><p>He didn't know why, but Stein started to feel his mental barriers break down. He could feel his inner madness starting to seep through the gaps and reach for his delicate sanity. The mention of his time with the witch stirred up a rebellious force within him that fought for control.<p>

In his mind's eye the old radio re-appeared, the sound having once again turned to static. All other concerns were now suddenly moot, he had to shut the damn thing off so he could have his peace and quiet again.

A jagged smile crept up on his face as he stared at Ragnarok.

_Dissect! _

He leapt at Ragnarok with the full force of his attack, but his movements were stiff and predictable, the weapon used the opportunity to get around him and make his escape.

"See ya, ass-hole!"

Realisation hit and Stein reigned himself in and restored his control of mind and body.

He was tricked.

Tricked by a demon sword with less than half his intelligence.

Disgusted with himself, Stein turned to check on Crona and noticed Maka cradling him in her arms.

Something about the sight of Crona made him uneasy. When briefly overwhelmed by his madness, Stein had sensed that it was not due to a lack of control on his behalf, but more to do with an outside influence that he couldn't quite identify.

He wasn't sure, but through the haze he thought he could feel said influence flowing from Crona's un-moving body, this flow ceasing when Ragnarok got away. This troubled Stein, but it would have to be dealt with some other time, right now he had to get Crona back to the infirmary and give him some medical attention.

* * *

><p>Already far away, Ragnarok continued with his desperate sprint for safety. Recent events played through his mind like a short film.<p>

His eventual escape could not have worked out better, but yet he felt a little unsettled by the circumstances within which he was able to flee.

Sure, he had intended to anger the professor in order to incite an unplanned or poorly thought out attack, but what had actually happened was on another level – the guy turned full on psychotic. Despite his limited knowledge of Stein, he was pretty sure that the man didn't anger to such a degree so easily.

There definitely was a creepy vibe throughout the whole encounter.

Had it not been for Stein's visible attempts to control himself, Ragnarok was sure he would have been a goner. He didn't know whether he should count his blessings or be concerned, after all Crona himself changed in much the same way.

If nothing else, Ragnarok was now sure that he would have to beef up his strength a bit more, having been overpowered to such a degree was unacceptable. He'd find a few more souls to devour, but the amount he needed to get strong enough was unknown to him. He was just going to eat and eat until he could take no more.

_Next time I see Crona, I'm going to crush the coward's little skull and use the paste on my sandwiches._

* * *

><p>Authors Note AGAIN:<p>

That's it, Fight and Flight parts 1 & 2 are now complete. Regular single chapters will now continue.

I'm sorry about how short this chapter is and indeed how short all of my chapters are. Depending on the content I want in a section of story, the chapter lengths may vary.

This doesn't cover for the fact that I suck ass when it comes to chapter length though. I'd like to make the chapters longer, but I'm just so damn slow at writing that I have to keep them short in order to update at least once a week.

In any case though, the next chapter 'Dreamscape' is going to be a bit like a self contained story within the greater narrative, so it'll probably turn out quite a bit longer than the other chapters (fingers crossed!) or become another two-parter (still with longer chapters) - I haven't decided yet :P

It's going to be all about a sojourn into Crona's mind and will delve a little more into the other presence knocking around in his head. Hopefully it'll make up for Crona's lack of participation in this chapter :)

I won't give any-more away though because that'll take the fun away!

One final thing before I conclude this monster of an author's note, I just wanted to mention that I have already written out the basic plots of the two sequels to this story as what I wanted to do kinda carries over three arcs that would look untidy if squeezed into the same fic. The working titles are as follows:

Looking Through the Mirror, Book 2: Divergence

Looking Through the Mirror, Book 3: Convergence

DONE!

Hope you liked the chapter despite the shortness of it.

Reviews are appreciated :)

P.S. If anyone thinks that I switch between character perspectives too often, let me know. I realise that it may seem a little sporadic.


	8. Chapter 5: Dreamscape  Part 1

Author's Note: Most of this 'Dreamscape' Chapter takes place in Crona's own mind, a dream if you will, and as such it'll be written mostly in Italics.

* * *

><p><strong>Looking Through the Mirror<strong>

Chapter 5: Dreamscape [Part 1]

Sunlight filtered through the infirmary partitions onto the closed eyes of a slumbering Maka. Soul sat nearby, his attention focused on a new book of his.

This went on for some time.

Eventually he snapped the thick book shut and drummed his fingers on the hard cover impatiently as he stared at his meister. To say that he was annoyed with her would have been an understatement - getting into such a dangerous fight without him there to back her up was definitely _not _cool.

Still though, he rationalised that she did not enter the fight willingly and she wasn't hurt too badly.

Soul glanced over to the next bed and felt his free hand tighten into a fist of its own volition. He knew it was irrational to blame it all on Crona, but human emotions are complicated and even the most restrained people are prone to anger sometimes. He reckoned he should cool down first before speaking to the pink haired boy again.

The sound of movement drew his attention back to Maka and was greeted by the sight of her sitting upright, rubbing her eyes groggily.

"Yo."

Maka froze and slowly turned her head to face him.

"Uh, hi". She dropped her hand and quickly surveyed the room, her eyes ultimately resting on the unconscious form of Crona. "How did I get here? I don't remember being badly hurt enough to pass out".

Soul couldn't help but grin, his shark like teeth gleaming.

"Stein said it might have been a combination of your injuries and the stress caused by your worrying over Crona's condition".

Maka turned to face Soul once again, his grin vanished instantly at the expression she held.

"Soul..." A single tear finally broke away and managed to work its way down the side of her face before being wiped away by her hand. "I thought he was going to die. Those... Those wounds were _bad_".

Suddenly Soul didn't really feel like being annoyed with Crona any more.

"Hey. Hey Maka, don't worry about it too much now". Soul moved slowly and embraced her delicately, as if worried she might suddenly break. "It all worked out fine in the end. You're both safe now. When Crona recovers we can go hunt Ragnarok down".

Somewhat reassured by Soul's words, Maka's breathing slowed and she turned to look at Crona once again.

"How's Crona been? Has he woken up at all so far?"

Despite the fact she wasn't looking at him, Soul shook his head.

"Nah, Professor Stein said that his wounds are healing up unusually fast, but he remains unresponsive". Soul noticed his eister grip the bedsheets tightly, her white knuckles emphasizing the strength of the gesture. "Stein went back to his lab to analyse some blood samples, he said that he was confident he'd find a solution".

Without warning, Maka swung her legs out of bed.

"I can't wait. I've got my own plan."

Cautiously, Maka stood up and cleared the gap between her and Crona's bed. For a moment she stared at the young man's gentle features before softly placing one hand on his forehead and one on his chest. She couldn't help but blush at the feeling of his heart beat under her fingers.

Soul looked on, completely non-plussed.

"Maka... What are you doing?"

"Shh, Soul. I'm linking souls with him again". Her eyes closed and her face strained with concentration. "I can't do it easily without physically touching him when he's unconscious like this, now just give me a moment to try. Maybe I can wake him up."

Soul silenced himself and watched with mild curiosity.

* * *

><p><em>Maka lost all awareness of the infirmary and found herself in some sort of void. The darkness chilled her to the core and she couldn't shake the feeling that she was being observed.<em>

"_Crona?"_

_No response._

_She shut her eyes once again and attempted to increase her concentration, but was interrupted by a bodiless voice._

"_You're not going to find him here, child". The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere - it dug painfully into Maka's skull. "The boy's been locked away somewhere deep within the recesses of his mind and he won't be getting out any time soon". _

_The words dripped with satisfaction and Maka steeled herself for a response._

"_Who are you?"_

_She could almost feel the smirk behind the voice's words._

"_Oh, I'm afraid you don't get to ask any questions. Now go, before you ruin the party"._

_Before Maka could speak again, an immense pain washed over her body. She could feel her life-force being eaten by the pain and so disconnected herself from Crona before she sustained any permanent damage to her soul._

* * *

><p>Maka felt herself being shaken and opened her eyes slowly, only to see Soul staring back at her. Her body felt sore, like the pain she felt in Crona's soul somehow transferred over to her physical body.<p>

"Hey Maka, you okay? What happened in there?"

It took Maka a moment to collect herself before she spoke.

"Soul, things just got a lot more complicated".

* * *

><p><em>Crona awoke to an unfamiliar ceiling in an unfamiliar bed. His thoughts were sluggish and his vision clouded. Despite everything around him taking on the shape of solid objects, the environment appeared as if it were solid, but not solid, like it was phasing in and out of existence, but for some reason this did not concern him.<em>

_He took a moment to look around, but his scrutiny was interrupted by an arm that draped itself over his side, its hand resting softly on his chest. The action was followed by some gentle breathing he hadn't noticed before._

_Realisation hit and Crona froze instantly._

_Someone was in bed with him. __**He**__ was in bed with someone._

_His mind went blank and all normal function seemed to cease for what felt like forever. Eventually, and against better judgement, he managed to rotate himself just enough to get a good look at the person with him and was met with a mess of blonde hair._

_Crona had a pretty good idea who it might have been, but his own denial was too great and thus he refused to admit to himself who it might be – there was only one way to find out for sure. Slowly he rotated himself more so that he could comfortable use an arm to gently push the hair out of this person's face without waking them, he had no idea where this boldness within him had come from, but he had to know none-the-less._

_After some hesitation, he eventually mustered the courage and revealed the stranger's face. The sight of the face both confirmed his suspicions and caused him to blush heavily. Maka's face was now in full view and she sighed contently at Crona's touch._

_This was all a bit too much for Crona to handle. He didn't know how he ended up in bed with Maka or how he even got to a bed in the first place – last thing he remembered was fighting Ragnarok and then... Darkness..._

_Despite having dreamt of this kind of situation before, he knew that something wasn't quite right, after-all, Maka wouldn't ever be intimate with him, right?_

_With a movement so slow and gentle that he even surprised himself, Crona was able to escape from her half embrace and get out of bed, surprised that he was actually fully dressed. Surprised, but strangely disappointed. After shaking away the dirty thoughts, he exited the room quickly, but silently and stumbled into a dark nothingness._

_Before he could properly grasp what he was seeing, the world seemed to construct itself hastily around him, as if surprised by and unprepared for his arrival. All confusion about the spectacle, however, left his mind as soon as it had come, his thoughts of suspicion leaving almost as quickly as they came as if his own mind did not want him to truly grasp what it was that was happening to him._

_His mind now clear, Crona automatically went to sit on the nearest chair and just sat, waiting for something he couldn't quite identify. Soon after, the newly awakened Maka entered the room and, noticing his presence, made a bee-line straight for him._

* * *

><p>In the waking world, Maka continued to watch Crona. Soul had left hours ago, satisfied that she was okay. When day turned to night, Stein dropped by the infirmary to check both of their conditions.<p>

She informed him of what had happened when she tried to link souls with Crona, but was disappointed when he didn't have any idea about what it was they should do.

"You could try again, although at this point I'm not sure whether or not you'll accomplish anything or if it's even safe". Stein pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and then moved the same hand up towards his head-bolt. "As your old teacher and your doctor I'd advise against it, but I also know that in circumstances such as these you probably won't listen to what I or anyone else says".

He finished cranking the bolt and looked down at the completely motionless Crona.

"This might just be something he has to do on his own".

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I'm so sorry I took so long only to update with a pathetically short chapter. The build-up to my last year of my degree, with all the trappings of a 10,000 word essay before I even start and the prep work for my final photographic project that goes with it is really eating up all my free time :(<p>

I'll try updating every week again, but because of the work I'll have to split chapters up into parts in order to stay on time. So for at least the next month or two, updates are going to be about half as long as usual, but the actual chapters themselves won't be, you just won't get the full chapter every week.

Sorry!

Still though, I hope you enjoyed what there is of this chapter so far, It's gonna be in three parts with about 1500 – 2000 words per part. I'll try and get the next part to you by next Monday!

Constructive reviews are welcome as always! P.s. I only skimmed through this before uploading, so if you see any grammar or spelling mistakes, let me know and I'll sort them out!


	9. Chapter 6: Dreamscape Part 2

Authors Note: I warn you, this part is almost devoid of dialogue. The reason for this stems from the fact that both characters are isolated and alone. This part will instead be mostly descriptive.

**Looking Through the Mirror**

Chapter 6: Dreamscape [Part 2]

_Crona felt so numb, so disconnected from the world. Nothing seemed real and nothing felt real. He didn't know what to believe and what to be wary of – this world he was in was not like the one he was used to._

_He may not have been the most socially adept or confident individual, but at least in the waking world Crona knew right from wrong, but somehow he felt that in this dark mirror of a world the rules were not quite the same._

_Yes. Crona knew that this was a fabrication and therefore not real, but he could not for the life of himself figure out where he was or how to escape. The colourless and lifeless streets of this pseudo Death City haunted him and every moment he spent there was another moment lost in his effort to maintain his sanity._

_He knew that he should maintain a stronger will in order to keep himself whole, but knowing what he should do and actually doing it were two different things. He couldn't be sure of himself, not when he didn't know if he was even actually alive._

_Despite his realisation that nothing he saw was real, he was not able to close his mind to the distorted apparitions that called upon him._

_Earlier, when 'Maka' sat in his lap in the apartment and purred at him in an oddly seductive way, he instantly knew that all was not as it should be. Almost as soon as it had happened, he threw the girl off of himself and escaped to the streets._

_It had been many hours since then, but the mischievous moon was still yet to have traded places with it's chuckling counterpart. Everything here was blanketed with a constant, thick darkness that threatened to suffocate the panicking Crona with every step he took._

_Whether this world was real or not, Crona knew that he needed a plan of action. He had to figure out where he was and how he could get out of there. Earlier he had made his way to the city's outskirts to see what he could find and instead of being met with the sight of a vast desert, he was instead confronted with a total void._

_Faced with this and a new sense of hopelessness, he turned inwards and started to make his way towards the Academy. If there was a way to escape this nightmare, he'd find it there._

* * *

><p>Despite Stein's confidence in Crona's full recovery and his belief that he would wake up on his own, Maka was still unsure.<p>

The voice she encountered when she linked souls with Crona was not his own, nor was it a creation of her inner self, of this she was certain. The voice was a foreign entity, plaguing Crona's mind and soul like a disease, leaching off of his very life-forcein a bid to stay alive – or at least this is what she believed so far. She was still, truthfully, at a loss for what this actually meant and how it affected Crona in the grand scheme of things. For all she knew, she might be completely wrong and the voice might be a construct of Crona's inner self – a split of his personality or soul.

She wasn't about to take any risks though, she had to be sure before she just sat on the sidelines and waited for Crona to come back to her.

Such was her determination, that as soon as Stein had left the infirmary again she prepared for another expedition into the swordsman's mind. This time though she prepared herself more thoroughly and erected a few internal defences and safeguards should the attempt go badly.

For the second time that day, she placed her hands on Crona's forehead and chest. She allowed herself to relax to the feel of his heartbeat under her palm before plunging herself back into Crona's inner world.

* * *

><p><em>With every shuffled step towards the school, Crona was imbued with an unexplained and ever-increasing confidence that he'd find the exit of this hellish shadow of a world somewhere in the school's numerous hallways and rooms. He wasn't going to kid himself though, he fully expected this final hurdle to be fraught with danger and despite his increased determination he was still unsure if he would make it through with all of his sanity in one piece.<em>

_Wary grey eyes were met with the welcome sight of the academy's long staircase leading up to it's doors._

_Crona looked up at the school: something about it's twisted appearance in this world frightened him. It's shape had morphed into a jagged mess of spikes pointing in every direction. Each spire was adorned with a hangman's noose – all of them wrapped around the necks of individuals he could not identify from this distance._

_The academy's decorative skulls had also become twisted mockeries of their former selves, each one soundlessly screaming at the sky._

_After some mental preparation, Crona started his determined march up the stairs._

_The first half was traversed without incident, but as he continued upwards on the final leg of the ascension, the sky lit up with a furious light that burned his eyes. With it followed an unpleasant sensation, a sensation that ripped at his very being and pounded his mind._

_His vision disappeared and he fell to his hands and knees._

_He had never experienced anything like the pain he felt now. So terrible was it, that Crona believed it to be worse than the pain of death itself. As the onslaught continued to tear at his essence, he could feel parts of himself break away like pieces of soggy bread, each break left him feeling more and more unstable._

_And then it stopped._

_As quickly as it had come the pain was gone and Crona's eyesight restored itself, only to be met with a few splattered drops of his own blood on the floor. His eyes stung, his nose burned and his mouth was filled with the taste of copper – this prompted him to raise a hand to his own face and sure enough, blood trickled slowly from each of them._

"_You see now don't you?" A voice said. "You know now that there is no-way to escape. This place is your own creation and despite yourself, you know deep down that you don't want to leave"._

_Crona coughed into his hand and wiped the blood from his face. "Shut up."_

_The air around him seemed to growl in anger at his response and the voice continued, this time with more of an edge to it. "Stop being so stubborn. If you just choose to accept your fate, then it would all go better for you. This world is as it appears because it mirrors your internal struggle against it."_

_Crona hung his head low as the bodiless voice circled around him._

"_If you stop fighting, you'll be granted everything you desire: happiness, peace, a world that would accept you rather than shun you and most importantly, a world in which your beloved Maka returns your feelings."_

_This struck Crona hard and he found himself welling up at the mere thought of the scythe meister._

"_I just want to see her again."_

"_Then stop fighting." This second voice was new, but familiar. Crona tilted his head slowly upwards and his eyes widened in shock and pleasant surprise. Looking down at him was Maka, a soft smile adorned her features. "I'm here now Crona, you can rest"._

_Something wasn't right. Crona found it difficult to look her in the eyes – those soft and caring green eyes – every time he tried, he was forced to look away._

_Maka stood there, completely unmoving. "What's wrong Crona? I'm not sure I can tolerate your stubborn and childish attitude right now. You know what has to be done to escape the fear and the pain. __**Stop fighting it**__."_

_Realisation clicked into place in his head, Maka would never speak to him in this manner. She was always kind and gentle with him - whoever this 'person' was, it was __**not**__ Maka. _

_Crona raised his head defiantly and stared at her face and instead of being met with the usual kind green orbs, he was instead confronted by sickly yellow snakes eyes._

"_No. Get away from me!" Crona forced himself to stand and stare at the imposter in the eyes. "Don't mock me with the temptation of a fake, you'd never be able to fool me!"_

_'Maka' smirked at him. A snake's tongue whipped out from her mouth and licked her lips. "Clever boy Crona. Clever, but also stupid." Her body was engulfed in a black energy and instantly replaced with the form he feared most in this or any other world._

"_Hello child. Come and give your mother a hug."_

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Medusa's back to cause another shit-storm! I have several surprises in store that involve her as she's gonna play a major role in my two sequels (when I eventually get to them).<p>

I hope you enjoyed the second part of this three part chapter – as with previous updates I'm happy to receive reviews of the positive and constructive kind as well as any help with bad grammar or mistakes that I might have made.

Next update: Dreamscape [Part 3] – after that the build-up to the final confrontation with Ragnarok will begin.

P.s. I may stick to this formula of releasing updates in short parts rather than full chapters, this way I can reliably update more frequently. I hope you guys don't mind - it's just easier for me this way during this busy time.


	10. Chapter 7: Dreamscape Part 3

Author's Note: This chapter includes more of Maka than the previous ones and Medusa's role is quite dialogue heavy in a classic evil villain monologue kinda way when she comes up. Also, due to this whole chapter taking place inside Crona's soul 'dreamscape' if you will, it'll all be written in italics and as such it makes it difficult to write any direct lines of thought for the characters, so thought for the time being is going to be written exclusively indirect for the time being.

**Looking Through the Mirror **

(Now Beta-Read By MissTiff12)

Chapter 7: Dreamscape [Part 3]

_Maka's second attempt was far more successful – her entry into Crona's soul was not impeded this time and rather than getting stuck in some limbo area like before, she was instead thrust directly into a large, dark attic._

_Taking some time to shake the initial dizziness the 'journey' caused her, Maka scanned the immediate area. The room she was in had a strong damp smell, falling water droplets echoed all around her and the sound of heavy rain could be heard as it relentlessly assaulted the hole-riddled roof. Water rushed past her feet as it travelled along the uneven floor and down into a small hole._

_If she was going to find Crona, she'd have to get her bearings first if at all possible, and with little effort she spotted a weak light trickling into the room from behind a small stack of boxes. With a sense of haste, Maka removed the obstructions in order to reveal a large and dirty window: its glass was densely populated by small beads of water, blocking any view of the outside world._

_Frustrated with this, Maka stepped back and took a deep breath. After a few moments of stillness she threw her leg out to the side in a roundhouse kick aimed at the window's frame, the force of which blew the window off of its hinges and sent it crashing down onto the sloped rooftop._

_Smirking with satisfaction, she moved back towards the window and stuck her head out and regretted it instantly. Icy, heavy rain drummed on the top of her head, soaking her hair and making it stick to her face. Before her stretched a scene she did not expect – rather than the large endless stretches of sand and sea water she had come to expect, she saw instead a large and dark replica of Death City. It was not entirely the city she recognised though: all the buildings were warped and disproportioned in comparison to the real thing, corners and edges were sharper and some even had spikes protruding from them. What unnerved her the most however was the grotesquely transformed DWMA, its mere appearance unnerved Maka and sent a chill down her spine._

_This evil city, whilst not the real thing, seemed more appropriate for its name._

_Unsure of where to start, Maka scanned the city as best she could in an attempt to find Crona. She couldn't attempt soul perception due to the fact that she was actually residing inside a soul and therefore any attempt would merely smother her senses. She frowned as she squinted at an area in the distance, as annoying as the old-school approach was, using her soul perception would be about as useful as stumbling around with a blindfold on._

_A crashing sound drew Maka's attention to the DWMA, its tallest tower was now found to be crumbling under its own weight courtesy of some sort of recent impact._

_Of course. She should have known to check the academy first._

_Before she could move, however, an agony-filled scream filled the air followed by an invisible crushing weight that struck her down. For a few moments Maka was unable to move as she lay on the wet floor, her vision had become spotty and her ears were overwhelmed by an intense and painful white noise – her head felt like it was going to explode. The horrific experience lasted only a few seconds though, leaving the meister shaken, but relieved._

_That scream... She knew that scream._

_**Crona**._

_The pain she had heard in that scream clawed at her heart, but also strengthened her resolve to find him and get him out of there._

_Maka stood up yet again and noticed that the rain had now changed: now it had turned black and its viscosity had become akin to ink. As if the scream hadn't scared her enough, this just reinforced the assumption that something was wrong. Before setting off on her way to the academy, she wiped her sweaty brow and face, only to notice that she now had an intense, but painless nose-bleed._

_Yup, something was really, really wrong._

"_Crona, hang in there."_

* * *

><p><em>*Five Minutes Earlier*<em>

_As if reflecting his mood, a heavy rainfall appeared out of no-where, coupled with intense thunder and lightning._

_As the rain soaked him to the bones, Crona felt himself go cold in a way that had nothing to do with it. His head pounded and his vision tunnelled. What he was seeing and hearing now could not be real by any stretch of the imagination, it was all the work of his own subconscious – it HAD to be. If he could just rid himself of any kind of thought to do with her, he'd be home-free._

_Medusa smirked at him. "You do realise that I can hear everything you're thinking don't you?" She beckoned towards the rest of the city. "As different as it may seem compared to the dreadfully bland sandbox it once was, this is still your soul. As much as you may not want to believe it, I am now a part of your soul and with that comes certain perks, one of which allows me to mould this inner world of yours into any shape I desire. This construct better suits my plans as it means a lot to you – so knowing your weak mental control, I knew that twisting and bastardising it would affect you more profoundly than most things."_

_Medusa lowered her hood and turned to face the twisted academy. "I had attempted to involve an apparition of your beloved scythe-meister, but due to a surprising amount of resistance from your soul I had to make do with disguising myself as her instead. That, as you know, did not work out as I had planned, but no matter – the real one will be here soon and then I'll finally be rid of you, her, and this wretched prison."_

_She turned back to stare at Crona's shocked eyes once more. "Three birds with one stone."_

_Crona gritted his teeth in anger; it was one thing to threaten him, but he would definitely not stand for anyone threatening Maka again – it was bad enough that Ragnarok almost got her – he wasn't going to let something like that happen ever again if he had anything to say about that._

_Medusa laughed nonchalantly. "Oh I'm sorry child, did I strike a nerve?"_

_Crona couldn't listen to her any more. In one very fast and fluid movement, he materialised a broadsword with his magic and swung viciously at the witch, the attack fuelled by all the hate he felt for his mother._

_It wasn't enough though._

_Medusa caught the sword in her left hand effortlessly and followed the block up with a weak, yet demoralising back-handed slap. Crona could not comprehend the ease with which the woman negated his attack – he had put everything into it._

"_H-how?" he whimpered._

_Medusa snorted in disgust. "Every time you act or speak, you disappoint me further. Come now Crona, where did you think your magic came from?"_

_Crona's eyes widened as everything came crashing down into one horrifying conclusion. The familiarity of the magic's energy, the bouts of sickness after every use... The magic was not his own, this whole time he had been using his mother's power. His legs grew weak and he fell to his knees, his sword still in his and Medusa's hands._

_Medusa's eyes narrowed and her aura became filled with a toxic evil intent._

"_Pathetic."_

_Slowly, and with an air of superiority, the witch reached down to the scruff of Crona's neck and picked the quivering young man up with no apparent effort. She took a moment to observe his plight before spinning around at lightning speed and throwing a seemingly weightless Crona into the main tower._

_The impact, whilst painful, shook Crona out of his stupor. Despite being buried under a huge amount of rubble, he did not feel as if he was as injured as he should have been considering the force of impact and the weight of the rubble that landed on him. He wasn't sure, but he thought that it might have been something to do with the fact that this was all taking place in his own soul. That wasn't to say that it didn't hurt – as Crona stood up his chest stung painfully and his head throbbed in such a way that made him feel sick. His right arm too felt broken, due to him using it in a vain attempt to protect him from both impacts – he could no longer move it at all._

_Crona stood still for a moment to check his wounds more thoroughly and then looked down upon the unmoving form of his mother who was staring right back at him. Despite the hatred he felt for her, he didn't know what he could do and as if responding to his mood shift again, the rain turned an inky black._

* * *

><p><em>*Present Time*<em>

_Maka, her athletic abilities never failing her, was closing in fast on the academy. Since the impact on the tower she had not heard anything, but as she started to run up the long staircase up to the academy, she could just barely see a lone, slightly hunched figure right where the impact had occurred. She couldn't be sure, but she had a feeling that it was Crona._

_She attributed the crushing weight and intense pain she had felt earlier to any damage Crona might have sustained. Seeing as she was in his soul, it wasn't much of a stretch to assume that she would feel pain if his soul was damaged whilst she was there._

_Maka reached the academy's long staircase and began to scale it at a pace that would put anyone to shame. If there was one thing she liked about venturing into a soul, it was that she never seemed to get tired whilst there. It allowed her to maintain a pace and level of exertion that would otherwise be impossible in the physical plane._

_As she reached the half way point, the air started to feel soupy and it became difficult to breathe, however she knew that it wasn't real and that she could just ignore it, but that was easier said than done. She wasn't sure, but she could feel a malevolent presence behind it – not that she was surprised, she had expected something to be off since she started running._

"_Damn it, if these stairs don't feel like they go on forever."_

_The hunched figure on the tower was now close enough to be positively identified as Crona. Maka wasn't sure if he knew she was there yet – if he didn't, then he would soon enough._

_Maka was finally drawing close to the end of the staircase, but before she could reach the top Crona leapt off the tower, sword in hand - a flash of lightning and the unmistakable bellow of thunder followed, seemingly emphasizing a finality to the attack. As he plummeted towards his target, Crona disappeared from Maka's field of view – the accompanying impact could be heard easily through the raging wind and thunder._

_A sharp pain pierced her chest and almost caused Maka to lose her footing – the coppery taste of blood filled her mouth briefly before she spat it out. She knew what this meant, but she also knew that it wasn't over. She was still alive after-all, which meant Crona was too._

_Maka took the final ten stairs in one impressive leap and neatly rolled into her landing. The speed at which she stood back up made her dizzy for a few seconds before she was finally able to get a grasp on the situation at hand._

_Standing before her was someone she never thought she'd ever see again. Maka couldn't focus on that right now though as Crona was suspended in the air by the vector sword Medusa was holding._

"_Let go of him right now!"_

* * *

><p><em>Here he was again, floating in the murky darkness of his soul, mind, whatever – he didn't care for the finer points right now.<em>

_Crona, whilst not able to move was not feeling his usual terrified self as the situation would usually warrant. No, instead he felt pretty damn livid; this was the second time he'd been stabbed in the last few days after all, and he was pretty sure that the sensation wasn't growing on him. In the end though, it wasn't the injury that angered him the most, what really got on his last nerve was that he hadn't been strong enough to prevent them – was he so weak that he couldn't protect himself as well as those he cared about?_

"_CRONA!"_

_The familiar voice tore through the darkness as though it wasn't even there. Slowly, his vision began to clear up and the clearer it got, the more acute the pain in his chest became. Eventually his senses sharpened enough for him to notice that he was indeed, still suspended in the air with a sword through his chest._

"_Crona?" Crona twisted his head stiffly to the side and saw Maka. Worry and anxiousness was evident in her expression. Crona could only cough feebly in reply._

_Medusa, who had been looking at Maka at the time, noticed this and faced him once more. Her face did not betray any sort of surprise or irritation – instead she appeared almost... happy._

"_I must say Crona, killing someone from within their own soul is a lot harder than I expected it to be, but I think it's more fun like this. This way at least, I get to play around a bit more, enough to get payback for your betrayal and for your little plaything bifurcating me." Medusa rubbed her nose lightly. "That was painful, you know."_

_Despite himself and the extremely dire situation he found himself in, Crona couldn't help but feel his face turn red at the insinuation that Maka was his 'plaything'._

"_L-l-leave right now, Mother. Or I will stop you."_

_Medusa's face lost all signs of joviality, replacing it with an intense glare and a low hiss. She swung her vector sword towards the academy, the sudden movement flung Crona off the blade and into the wall, Maka could be vaguely heard screaming as he hit the wall. Compared to the impaling, the pain didn't even register to Crona._

"_Don't __**EVER**__ call me that, you useless sack of bones. A weakling and traitor like you does not deserve to even share the same air as me." Medusa de-materialised her vector blade and summoned a few of her 'snakes', which circled around her ominously. "__**REMEMBER**__ where you get your powers from. You can't beat me when I hold all the cards, and even if you did have something to fight with, I control this domain now. You're just a useless tenant that needs to be evicted."_

_With a speed that Crona had always admired about her, Maka bolted right into arm's length of the witch and hit her with a deceptively powerful right-hook. The impact made an audible cracking sound and sent Medusa sliding along the wet ground for several feet in the opposite direction to Crona. She didn't get up._

_Maka seemed surprised at her own strength, but pleased all the same. "That's what you get for ignoring me." She turned to face Crona and smiled softly at him. "People have gotta stop assuming that I'm useless without a weapon ya'know?"_

_Despite his condition, Crona could not help but smile back at her. Hers was just too infectious._

_The colour of the rain turned back to normal and Crona and Maka just smiled at one another, content in doing so. The rain still poured just as heavily though, and the blustery wind actually increased in intensity, blowing Maka's jacket around and howling in their ears, deafening them to almost everything else._

_The sky flashed brilliantly once more, blinding Crona for a moment and forcing him to cover his eyes. Through it all, he thought he could hear Maka screaming something and when he removed his arm from his face he was surprised to see two Maka's grappling each other, trying to force the other into submission. Crona was shocked, but knowing whom Medusa disguised herself as earlier, he was not entirely surprised at her pulling this sort of underhanded tactic._

_The Maka that appeared to have the upper hand shouted out to him. "Crona, Crona it's her! She's trying to trick you. You've got to kill her NOW before she kills us!"_

"_NO!" The other Maka kicked the first one away from her and put some distance between them. After doing so, she glanced in Crona's direction, fear was evident on her features. "You can't listen to her, that's Medusa – she's trying to confu..."_

_The first Maka cut her short with a painful sounding drop-kick to the face, which sent the second Maka crashing into the ground in a crumpled heap._

_By this point, Crona had managed to force himself back into an upright position and he continued to stare in disbelief. If he didn't do something soon, it was possible that the real Maka would be killed, but which one was it?_

_Maka 1 placed her hands on her hips in defiance and leaned forward, finishing the gesture off by pulling her tongue out at the still unmoving Maka 2. The action was not that unusual – Crona had seen Maka do something like that quite often when arguing with Soul – but he'd never seen her do something in a situation such as this, but it wasn't a deal breaker – he still wasn't sure who to believe._

_Crona's attention was drawn away by a grunt coming from Maka 2's direction, and sure enough he could see her painfully pulling herself back up. When she finally managed to stand, her arms hung out in front of her and her head was bowed, her face obscured by her now unrestrained, wet hair._

_Through the gusts of wind, he could hear her sobbing. This was made evident by simultaneous violent shakes. Maka 1 stood-fast, smiling confidently at her._

_Maka 2 sobbed for a few more painful moments before she finally spoke, almost every word separated by a pained gasp. "Why? Why can't you just leave Crona alone? After all you've done to him and all you've made him do, can't you just find it in yourself as his mother to leave him alone, to let him be happy?" Maka 2 raised her head to face her counterpart and continued speaking. "I'd be lying though if I didn't say that I'm being entirely unselfish about this. **I** need you to leave him alone, to leave **us** alone. He's my world and I **need** him, I'll be damned if I let you take him away from me!"_

_Crona was stunned. He couldn't do anything other than just stare at her and she in turn, turned to face him – her eyes conveyed a strong emotion that Crona's awestruck mind could not properly comprehend. He was certain of one thing though: that was her, that was the real Maka._

_Maka 1 snorted in disbelief. "Can you believe her Crona? Sinking so low just to trick you. Finish her off, you're the only one that can."_

"_No."_

_Maka 1's smug expression faded and was replaced with mild fear. "What, why? That's her Crona, you've got to finish the job!"_

_Crona's expression turned blank – his eyes became dull and unreadable. "Yeah, I'll finish the job alright." His body now exuding a distinct aura of power that he had not expected, Crona followed his instincts and automatically raised his good arm forwards, towards the academy. He opened his hand so that his palm was visible and held it still and looked towards Maka 1. "I think its time you got the hell out of my soul, **Mother**."_

_Maka 1 appeared hesitant, and her eyes changed to yellow, the pupils also morphed to those akin to a snake's. She leered at Crona with a gaze so wretched, it might have killed a lesser man. Desperately she attempted to run towards the swordsman and strangle the life out of him, but it was no good... Her feet were rooted to the ground, she couldn't move an inch. Her anger disappeared and fear overtook her. Behind her the twisted apparition of the academy literally rotated slowly on the spot, the nearest of its screaming large black skulls drew closer with each second, the atmosphere around her became heavy and suffocating._

"_Crona! Crona... You wouldn't do this to your own mother now would you?"_

_Crona stared at her expressionlessly as the giant skull moved into place behind the now revealed Medusa. "You tormented me as a child and showed me no love, why should I treat you any differently?"_

_Medusa lost all composure and screamed a wretched, hate-filled scream. In front of her Crona clamped his outstretched hand into a fist, and in an instant response the giant skull lurched forwards and swallowed the witch up. Her screams were silenced instantly._

_The thunder and lightning stopped, and the rain ceased shortly afterwards as well. Clouds parted to reveal the chuckling sun they all knew and loved._

_Maka stared at Crona in awe – his ability to control his own soul on this level was beyond anything she had seen or heard of before._

"_W-wow Crona. That was amazing."_

_Crona closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "I'm not sure I really knew what I was doing, heh."_

_Maka looked at him incredulously. "Really?"_

"_Really," he replied. He looked up to the sky and breathed in deeply. "I guess... we can go back home now?"_

_Maka smiled. "Yeah. Lets go."_

_The world around them started to disintegrate until their vision whited out._

* * *

><p>Back in the infirmary, Maka awoke abruptly. After a few moments she realised that her hands were still on Crona's forehead and chest. Crona's face was a dark shade of red, and judging by the warmth in her own coupled with the realisation of what she said in Crona's soul, she could bet that hers was the same.<p>

In a clumsy and awkward fashion, Maka yanked her hands away from him, looked away and nervously scratched the back of her head.

"Heh. Um, hi Crona."

* * *

><p>Author's Note: Sorry it's taken me so long to update!<p>

This is the longest update I've done in a while. Coupled with the first two parts, this chapter totals up to over 7500 words – which is a big deal for me.

I tried to make this update more interesting and action packed than the previous parts of the 'Dreamscape' chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it. As always I welcome constructive criticism and any positive reviews you might have.

Now that this interlude portion of the story is over, the next few chapters are going to concentrate on the build-up to the final confrontation with Ragnarok and said confrontation. In an effort to keep these chapters structured more coherently, I may write out the complete chapters, rather than do them in parts. This would mean that I'll update less in favour of more complete updates, but I haven't decided if this is the way to go yet, as I'm still quite busy at the moment.

Thanks for reading :)

P.s. Thanks also to MissTiff12 for being my new Beta-reader!


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